


Dealing With a Devil

by Epicenter



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-01-10 16:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1161913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Epicenter/pseuds/Epicenter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An event from Swindle's past comes back to haunt him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Scarred

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, funny story about this. I started this back in 2012 when season 2 of Prime was over and decided to figure out a way to bring Unicron back in the story while also using Swindle, and I'd came up with this. The fact that it's disturbingly similar to the way Predacons Rising brought back Unicron was just a major coincidence. Anyway, only got four chapters up for this so far due to my interest in my other story, but I'm back to working on this. Anyway, enjoy.

Swindle was not having a good day. The elite guards had found out about his side-project consisting of arms-dealing and information brokering and then came and kicked his aft. Hard. He didn't see it coming. He thought he covered his tracks well-enough, but they figured it out and now he was a prisoner.

He hasn't been put through a trial yet, which surprised him. Zeta Prime just loves getting people in bars as fast as possible. Instead, here was in front of the Senate, for some odd reason.

The room was the official chamber of the Senate and it was pretty big, considering it had to hold about fifty senators. It was officially called the Primacy Auditorium. It was a circular room, with only one way in or out, not counting the window. Every one of the Senators was sitting behind their desk. Swindle looked around the room with his blue optics, searching for someone.

He found him.

Swindle's creator was sitting near the center, looking away. It was obvious what he was feeling. He was ashamed of Swindle for doing this. This would cause a huge scandal if it got out.

"Senators," Zeta Prime was speaking now, holding something in his hand, "as you know, the revolts are getting out of hand." No slag, Swindle thought to himself. "We have to stop them using any means possible. Luckily, I have the perfect weapon to help quell the rebellion." He show everybody the thing in his hand. From what Swindle could see, it was a glowing, spherical thing. Definitely something he hasn't seen before. "The vamparc ribbon."

"And what does it do?" questioned one of the Senators.

"Allow me to show you on our subject." Subject? Wait, there wasn't anyone here but him…

Oh, slag.

"Why him?" Swindle's creator ask, standing up now. Wow. Sounded like he cared for once.

"To serve as a lesson, Senator. You should be glad I didn't just send him to the nearest prison where he would've rust for the rest of his probably short life." Got a point there. People with connections to the government don't last long in prison, especially if they happen to be related to a Senator. "Once I'm done, he will go back to his job and we'll put this all behind us. We really don't want anyone to know about this, do we? It will give them more of a reason to revolt."

Swindle's creator just stood there looking at him before answering with, "Continue your demonstration," and promptly sat back down.

"Now, back to the demonstration. You see Senators, the vamparc ribbon is a device design to take the energon straight from one's body. It's takes a lot of energy, but it definitely makes up for it. Observe." He pointed that thing at Swindle and activated it. Red rays of light came out of the device, entering body Swindle's body.

Swindle immediately felt pain. So much pain. The energon was leaving him quickly, like someone draining the blood from a body. He scream loud and hard, trying to find some way to deal with the agony of it, but nothing work. He just stayed in constant suffering.

And then it stop. Swindle was still on his knees, barely staying online. His energon capacity were low, but still good enough to function. His fuel pump was barely functioning and he felt his gears being weaken. He felt pieces of his plates scarred deep. Those are definitely not going to buffer out.

He looked up at Zeta. The device of his was glowing red, looking like it was ready to explode.

"The device is full now. It already had quite a bit of energy when we recover it from the planet we found it on during one of our scouting expedition which is why you're not dead yet Swindle." Well, that's good news. "But, there is still one more thing about the device I must show. You see, Senators, when it is full, it has to expelled the energy in one of two ways. The first and more common way in which we will be using this is by shooting a giant blast at your enemies."

Swindle was worried at that part. He was probably was going to shoot at him right now.

"The other way, and the one I will show right now, is to heal others. Watch." He pointed the device at Swindle, pushing it again, this time giving off white rays with a hint of purple.. Swindle immediately felt it entering his body, giving him a moment of ecstasy. It felt so good. It was like all of his wounds were mending and going back into place. The whole world wasn't there anymore.

Then it stopped. Swindle still felt the deep scorch marks on him, but his energon capacity was even higher than it was before the ribbon drain him. He could feel his wires brimming with overloaded energies that he could feel them spark under his plates.

"As you see, the healing function of it works wonderfully," Zeta spoke, "and I still have enough to show you a blast." Suddenly he pointed it up and it shot upward, created a small, but powerful blast to the ceiling, leaving a small hol eand scorch marks on it. "As you can probably guess, if it was fully charge, it could create a explosion big enough to probably destroy a whole squadron." That opened the gates for the questions and outrage over such a device that could exist.

Swindle's creator, on the other hand, had a different question from everyone else pertaining to his son. "Why are his optics purple?" Purple?

"Probably just a side effect of the healing powers. I'm sure it is just nothing. Guards, take the subject to the med-bay and let him recover. He has a job to get back to as soon as possible." The guards did as they were order, grabbing Swindle and making slowly walk out of the room. "Oh, and one more than, Swindle." Zeta interrupted, causing Swindle to stop and turn around to face him. "We'll be watching you. One more act like this and I will have you publically executed." With that done, Swindle slowly walk out of the room, looking at his reflection in the glass of the window as he walked through the hallway.

Purple eyes on a scarred face stare back at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is basically a reworking of a scene in Autocracy. Kudos to anybody who catches that. Anyway, I'll try and upload the other three chapters soon.


	2. Boring Day

Swindle stood by the screen, waiting for Decepticon data. As a information broker and arms dealer, he has to have the latest information on everybody, which he got by making a deal with Soundwave. Whatever money he gets from the information, he would give 20% of it to Soundwave so that he can use it to help the Decepticon cause. Of course, there were limits on what information he could have, but he still got a lot of data.

Also, unfortunately, he couldn't give the data to Autobots, which seriously cuts into his potential money amount. He tried it once. Soundwave found out somehow and took a little 'break' to visit Swindle. The most he did to Swindle was stare at him scarily, but it work. Swindle agree to not sell any more information to the Autobots, while leaking transmission fluid during the one-sided conversation and happily gave Soundwave all the money from it.

And so here he was, waiting for more information. It was getting boring. His ship didn't have much in the form of entertainment. It was a decent size ship, but most of the ship was use for cargo instead of other devices. Surprisingly, this wasn't even 10% of the stuff he has. He had a lot more hidden on several planets. It was important that he didn't have all of his stuff with him as the ship wasn't really a combat ship. Sure, it had great speed and good blasters, but it couldn't take much damage before it was blown to bits.

The computer bleep. Swindle open the file and see what Soundwave had written. Soundwave always had a pattern with information. First were the deaths. A team of vehicons were wipe out at a human base and that was it. That was surprising. Were the Autobots getting softer?

Then came basic information about the officers. Megatron was normal. Starscream still wasn't found. Airachnid tried to take over, but was taken care of by Soundwave himself. She's still alive. Knockout was alright, minus the fact that his buffer was missing and vows to disassemble the vehicon who took it. According to Soundwave, he was a Vehicon name St3v3, but he hasn't said anything yet. Breakdown was alright. Got an email from Dead End, seeing how he was doing. And there was a dude name Orion Pax there.

That name sounded oddly familiar to Swindle.

Finally, the major events. This was the juicy information Swindle wanted. Most of the time, it was pretty dull information. Nothing important that Swindle could use, but every now and then, he hit the jackpot and made a major score form the information.

When Swindle read the information, he looked shocked.

They found Unicron. Holy slag.

But that wasn't the best part. Apparently, they killed him, somehow. Soundwave wasn't giving details, just that Unicron was dead. Didn't say who killed it. Didn't say how it died. He just say that he died.

Dear Primus, that was awesome.

There was a little side note from Soundwave: "Don't tell anyone. Information will be made available to all Decepticons soon." And there goes any hope of making money from this.

Swindle close the information and stand up. He head back to the cockpit, wondering about the recent turn of events. When the death of Unicron reaches the rest of the Decpticons, this will probably be a major morale boost and a time for celebration. Sure, they haven't wiped out the Autobots yet, but killing Unicron was a great achievement. Megatron will probably get his propaganda machine running at full when words gets out. 

Swindle was the cockpit now and looked at his map. The closest planet was the infamous planet Pz-Zazz. Pz-Zazz was a planet that looks nice on the records. It was said to be a safe planet, with pleasant, easy-going people and beautiful scenery. However, once you get passed the public records and head into the private ones, you see that it's not as peaceful as it sounds. There were several things wrong with it. Pollution was evident, gang warfare was common, underground organizations that ruled a lot of the planet's economy, and more conspiracies than Red Alert could spout.

It was Swindle's kind of place.

Swindle place his coordinates at Pz-Zazz and head off to charge. It was going to take about a joor to get there on autopilot and Swindle wanted to be well-rested when he got there. The planet was neutral in all conflicts outside the planet, so Swindle didn't have to worry about them shooting at him. What he had to worry about was the landing fees. Fragging vultures. 

He went through the door on the left wall and head into his room. It was a dense room, covered in information about people, events, planets, and items and in sections. One area of the room had something about planets, the other section about events, etc. Swindle head to his berth and got on it. Today was over and tomorrow was coming.

Swindle's vision slowly went black and he went off to dream land.


	3. The Uninvited God

Unicron was not dead as everyone thought, although he didn't know why.

He spark was extinguished, dark, black, not pulsating, etc., basically everything that means a spark was dead. All of this because of the matrix, use by the last disciple of prime. That servant of his brother was going to pay dearly when Unicron got his servos around his spark and he was going to enjoy every last minute of it.

He had several theories as to why he was still alive. The first, and most obvious to him, was that he was too great to die. Everything was beneath him, including his brother Primus, so how should lesser beings like them kill him. It was impossible.

And yet, all he saw for what felt like eons, but instead was a day at the most, was the dark. He couldn't see anything, couldn't feel anything, and couldn't move anything. It felt like he was in purgatory.

But then, he felt something. A piece of his sparked still lived. He sensed it far away from him. The Matrix didn't fully extinguish its spark. It still lives.

Upon further examination, he realized that it was not on the planet called 'Earth,' but instead somewhere far away in space. This confused him. How did a piece of his spark managed to not be with him. How did he not notice this before?

He searched for the signal of this force. Not being a part of the physical plane did have certain advantages. He searched for the piece of him and found it. Where it was surprise him greatly.

Apparently, the last remaining piece of his spark was in one of the lesser beings spark. Unicron wonder how did a piece of him get in the other being. You would think a piece of your spark gone missing would be pretty noticeable and that a piece of him would probably drive one mad.

The thing he had to do now was to get his spark back, but how? He was no longer a part of the physical plain anymore, which meant he couldn't just kill him and take it. And even if he did just kill him, there was still a chance of his spark extinguishing along with the thing's spark. If it was a recent addition to the beings spark, he could take it without fuss and put himself into a new form, but, unfortunately for him, it has already embedded itself to the Cybertronian form, making him unable to get it. He couldn't possessed him, his own spark being connected to his spark would make it impossible and just push it out.

That didn't leave any other options. This being held his spark and as long as he was still alive, he would live. He just had to think of a way to get his spark out of the individual, which would take awhile, considering he had nothing to help him.

Unicron figure that he had to get to know this individual more, figure when it got his spark and how. The easiest way to figure that out was by looking through the beings memory banks. He could do that, but he had to attach himself to the individual to do it.

The being was asleep right now, so it might not notice that it had a uninvited guest in his head. Unicron entered the being head slowly, immersing himself in the being. He immediately felt something when he entered the being: greed. The being was a fan of avarice, always wanting more.

The being was squirming a bit, as if it felt the being entered it. Unicron wasn't a bit surprise at this. Something as great as him would have to be noticed by lesser beings, no matter how much he may try to ignore them as he squish them under his feet. He heard the thing whimper, which please him a little bit. It was always fun when to cause a being pain or to just scare them with his power. He was a god, and they were just mortals.

He slowly looked around the area of the head of the being. Screens were everywhere, showing the being memory. It showed a lot of thing and proved that that was going to take a while. Cybertronians had very long life spans, had a lot of memories to go with them.

He also had to make sure that the being lives through whatever situation it comes across. He couldn't risk having his spark extinguish along with his and had to give him guidance, even if he loath. This being was the sole reason he was alive and he had to make sure it lived, no matter the cost.

The being was waking up now. Unicron looked at the biggest screen in the fictional room. It was showing the being optics come online very slowly. Unicron watch the screen, waiting to see how this being acts.

He was going to be living in him for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made this chapter before the movie, so... yeah. I'm going to try and explain more later on, alright?


	4. New Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made this chapter a solid year and a quarter later after the other three, due to my growing interest in the Dysfunctional Team series. Now, I'm back at this and should be working on this and DT. So, the next chapter will come once I figure out why Word is being a bitch.

Swindle onlined to his room, feeling a bit sick. He didn't know why, but something just felt wrong to him. Pre-planet visiting shivers? Internal problem? His conscious?

Okay, that last one was unlikely, but still… weird.

Swindle shrugged it off and leapt off his berth, heading to the cockpit. He passed through his door and into the main area and took a seat there. According to the screen, he was right outside Pz-zazz (What a stupid name) and was about to enter the atmosphere. Swindle went back to manual piloting and sped up the descent down there. Almost immediately, his ship's comm. line came to life. "Attention, you are entering Pz-zazz. Please land at one of the locations we provided for you," an automated voice told him. Swindle brought up a projection of a map on his screen and looked a place to go to. "What is the name of the ship and its captain?" it asked as well. Swindle found that a little odd, but went with it.

"The ship is called 'The Negotiator' and I am the captain. The name is Swindle," he told the device.

"Name recognized. What is your species?" it asked. Now that was really suspicious. Swindle made a mental note to fly out of here just in case something bad happen with the next answer.

"Cybertronian," he answered.

"Answer correlates with previous answers. Redirecting you to a specific location," it answered. "Please head to these coordinates. You are wanted by authorities in connection to arms dealing." Time to fly out. "Failure to do so will result in termination of your ship." Wait what?

Suddenly, the room was bathe in a red light, indicated something was locked on to it. Swindle immediately pulled it up to see what and saw something immediately terrifying. Over 100 different SAM launchers were aimed at him. Swindle, at that moment, realized he was as good as dead if he didn't comply with the voice. Swindle silently muttered to himself as he flew off to the location, silently cursing to himself for answering the damn voice's question honestly.

XXX

Swindle landed at the location, not bothering to put up much of a fight. Honestly, he should be pretty happy that the voice didn't automatically blow him up, but that was a very small comfort. "Please exit the ship unarmed. You will be brought in for questioning. Failure to do so will result in termination. You have one minute to comply," the voice ordered him. Swindle gave a small sigh. It looks like he won't be getting a happy ending, as he expected. Still, he might have a chance at talking his way out of this.

Swindle got up from the cockpit and headed to his room real quick. He got rid of all of the weapons, his scatter blaster, pistols, and knives, and placed them on a desk in the room. He had no intention of dying due to a misunderstanding. He left the room and headed for the exit out of the ship on the right side. "45 seconds." He walked through the main area into another room and hastily used a buffer. He wanted to make sure that he looked his best before the interrogation. A professional looking appearance is always better than a better one when making deals. Helps make you look more trust-worthy. "30 seconds." He looked at himself in the mirror. He looked at himself, starting down and making his way up. He smirk at himself until he reached his heavily face. It suddenly became a scowl. "15 seconds."

"I hate you," he muttered out loud, although whether it was to him or the voice he didn't know. He walked out of the room and to the exit.

"10 seconds." Swindle pressed the button to open the door and the door opened, leading to the outside world. The light entered the ship, temporally blinding Swindle's optic until he adjusted them to it. He had forgotten how dark he keeps his ship sometimes. Swindle began walking onto a ramp and out to the ship. "Welcome to Pz-zazz. Have a pleasant stay," it told him one last time, as if mocking him. Swindle left the ship and looked around. He was in an enclosed airfield of some sort with a giant metal wall on each side and sniper towers at each corner and each sniper was aiming their gun at his ugly mug. He saw entrances at each side of the place, making him wonder which one he was supposed to go to.

"Attention, Swindle," a harsh voice barked from the speakers around the area, "moved to the entrance right in front of you. Fail to do so and the snipers will shoot you dead." Swindle was getting really tired from all of these canned orders, but comply, walking through the airfield. He took a look at all the ships here, noting that all of them looked very high quality, like it belonging to a strong military force. That moved them up a few notches on the 'planets to not screw with' list. He reached the door and entered. It leads to a dark hallway with an elevator at the end of it. Two guards with advanced armor of different races were there at the elevator's entrance.

"Come with us," the guard on the left ordered, looking like a giant bipedal lizard. "Don't comply and we will kill you." Swindle complied, walking to them. The lizard looked very calm and collected, resting his rifle on his shoulder, while the other guard aimed his very nervously at him. The other guard was a weird insect that looked like a mantis got gang-banged by a fly, a human, and a bird. It had the lithe, thin body of a mantis and four legs with the kaleidoscopic eyes and wings of a fly, and human shaped hands and feet with talons on both appendages.

"Are you sure that guy won't shoot me?" he asked, indicating to the bug guard.

"Yeah, he's just paranoid," he replied.

"He's a criminal," the mantis told him. "We have to be careful."

"Yeah, but this guy doesn't look like an idiot," the lizard replied, glancing at the other guard before looking back at Swindle. "Hurry up. We don't have all day." Swindle complied, walking carefully to the elevator. He crossed the area quickly and entered the elevator, the two guards following him. The lizard hit a button, closing the door and sending the elevator down. The lizard rested himself on the wall while the mantis kept pointing his gun at Swindle. Swindle was obviously perturbed by this, as anyone should.

"You know, maybe to can stop pointing your gun at my face. It would sure ease the tension right now," Swindle tried to persuade him. The guard reacted by inching the gun closer to his face, making Swindle cursed himself for that. The elevator dinged, indicating their arrival. The door opened into another hallway, this lit pretty brightly.

"Follow me," the lizard said, taking the lead. Swindle followed behind with the mantis taking the rear. The hallway was sparsely populated by other creatures, organic and mechanical. All of them were wearing the same armor as the other two guards. They went through it taking a few turns until the guard stopped at a door. He entered a code a swiped a card, opening the door. "In here," he said. Swindle did what he said, entering to find a white room with a table and a mirror on a wall. A classic interrogation room. "The guy will be here soon. Until then, take a seat or whatever. Just don't cause trouble, but I doubt you do that. You're not stupid," he said, walking out of the room with the mantis following him.

Swindle watched the door closed and began thinking through his options. Break the window and fight through? Stupid and suicidal. Take the interrogator hostage as soon as he walks in? Stupid and suicidal. Yep, only way out was to talk his way out of it, whatever they got on him. What the frag were they charging him for anyway? He's only been here once or twice before and the deals he made here were small time. A couple of small arms and that's it. Hardly worth chasing after him for.

And why was that sickening feeling still lingering?


	5. Atlas Novus

Swindle sat at his chair at the interrogation table, back against the mirror. He went through every deal he made hear in his mind. He sold some SMGs to a gang, along with a couple of pistols to other private citizens who were too paranoid to trust the government on his first visit. On his second visit, he sold one or two assault rifles and a few boxes of pistols to the same gang, along with some medical supplies that are hard to get to some medical centers that could pay quite a bit. He made sure nothing they had could be trace back to him, so how did they find him?

The door opened, letting in the interrogator. He looked like a skeletal humanoid, but with a brown, wrinkly skin, a mouth he couldn't shut due to his ginormous teeth, and glowing yellow eyes with eye sockets that connected to his mouth cavity. In contrast to the rest of the people, he didn't wear a uniform; wearing a baggy pair of pants, combat boots, and a button up trenchcoat. "Fucking hell," he tactfully said upon first glance on Swindle and he could've sworn he saw another mouth behind those teeth. "I hate Cybertronians," he added in a very screechy tone, striding over and taking a seat in front of Swindle, setting down a file pad in front of him.

You're quite blunt," Swindle muttered, looking at the interrogator. "So, what's your name?"

"Dedan. Don't make me say it again," he said, turning on the file. "So, your name is Swindle. Fuck, are you even trying to be subtle?" he asked, glaring at him.

"Had that name all my life."

"You're parents must've hated you for existing," he growled out, looking through the file. "Alright, let's just get to the reason why you're here. You're guilty of bringing a shitload of weapons here under our noses," he explained, ignoring the fact that he didn't have a nose.

"Define shitload," he requested.

"Let me see here," he said, looking for the manifest. "Alright here we go. 123 pistols, 74 SMGs, 53 Assault rifles…" and he continued going until he reached the last item, "and last, but not least, several 15 kiloton bombs," he finished and looked up at Swindle. He was staring, looking surprise as all hell, his mouth wide open. "What do you think of that, shithead?"

"There, is no way, in Primus, I've sold that much to them," Swindle said, getting his mind back in gear. "I've never sold anything of that much quantity to any group. I don't think I've sold that much to the Decepticons," Swindle defended himself.

"Well, they got in their hands somehow, and the evidence points to you," Dedan pressed on.

"What evidence?" Swindle asked.

"Documents from them, mentioning that they got them from you," Dedan told him.

"Wait, who are these guys?" Swindle asked.

"They are the people who have been a constant pain in my ass for the past couple of years," Dedan said. 'They called themselves 'Novus.' They were a gang, now they think they're some revolutionary group who wants to have all the power, but we're not going to let that fucking happen," Dedan explained. They're involved in a war right now with us and another group right now that runs the black market around here. They are slightly less of a nuisance, but they are still a group we have to take out later," Dedan explained. "They don't have an official name, but the higher up like to call them 'Atlas,' due to their how big they are. Personally, I like to call them fuckheads. So, does either of them ring a bell?" he asked.

"No, they don't. I certainly don't remember Novus and I'm more insulted at the fact that I haven't been contacted once by the black market. Seriously, you think they could at least give me message saying, 'Hey, wanna bring us some rifles?'" Swindle complained, although he didn't look like he was concentrated on much. Something at the back of his mind was bugging him.

"Bull. Shit," Dedan said, standing up and leaning over Swindle, which made Swindle realized how incredibly tall he was. He was easily a chest taller than him Swindle could've swore smoke was escaping from the sides of his mouth that wasn't cover by teeth. It was extremely intimidating. "You're involved in this. The transcripts that we receive indicate you as the sole being from where they got the guns from and responsible for them getting out of hand," Dedan accused.

"Ugh… can I see the manifest again?" he asked.

"For what?" he asked.

"That sounded familiar, so give me it so I can help both of us," Swindle coaxed. Dedan glared at him, looking like he wanted to rip his head off before conceding, using his long fingers to move it to the manifest and showed it to him. Swindle grabbed at and looked through it quickly, slightly mumbling to himself. Dedan scoffed, giving a distasteful glance at the mirror before addressing Swindle again.

"Found anything, shithead?" he asked.

"I may have. Can you tell someone to go to my ship and get the manifest from my room? It should be under by berth," Swindle asked of him.

"Why?"

"Just do it," Swindle ordered, trying to sound intimidating. Dedan glared at him, before knocking on the mirror.

"Get someone to his ship now and get his damn manifest!" he yelled. Swindle could hear the sound of chairs clattering to the floor, indicating that they were scared out of their chairs. Not bad. "Those fuckheads will be here soon," Dedan said calmly, seating back down and looking Swindle in the optics. "So, what's in your manifest?" he asked.

"My supplies at planets I've hidden them on," Swindle said. Dedan gritted his teeth together. Figuring out what he meant.

"You're saying someone found your supplies and decided to take them for themselves," Dedan questioned, leaning in.

"Exactly," Swindle answered. "These, uh, how would you call them?"

"Motherfuckers."

"Right, these 'motherfuckers' stole my stuff and made off with it. So, once I checked it out and make sure at all matches what I got, and then I'll help you get these guys," Swindle said.

"Where do you think they stole it from," Dedan asked.

"Uh, one of your moons," Swindle confessed.

"Our fucking moons?" he asked.

"Yeah, close enough, weapons are about the same amount, definitely the probable place," Swindle answered.

"You placed a weapon stash in one of our moons?" Dedan asked again, harshly.

"Uh, yeah," Swindle mumbled. Dedan had his job opened.

"You're a fucking moron," Dedan finally managed to get out, putting his face in his palms. "A fucking moron."

"Uh, are you okay," he asked.

"No, because I'm surrounded by fucking morons!" Dedan shouted. "My men, my superiors, and fucking criminal scum like you all are just complete idiots," he shouted out, slamming his fist on the table in a fit of rage, making a huge dent in it.

"Uh, sor-"

"Don't speak another word unless I tell you to," Dedan threaten. "Just sit there and be fucking quiet." Dedan relaxed back in his chair in after that, glaring at Swindle and waiting for the manifest to come. Swindle looked at him before lying back in his chair, sulking.

He might not make it out of here with his freedom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess this counts as a small crossover, but not really. I just transplanted Dedan to this story and made a few modifications on his background. If you haven't played OFF, do it.


	6. In Flames

"He looked mad," the lizard looking guard said as he and his mantis friend got in the elevator and pushed the button back up to the airfield on the rooftop. Dedan gave them the order to go look for Swindle's manifest. Of course, Dedan, being Dedan, choose to scream those orders at them instead of in an orderly tone. "I mean, he always pissy, but he looked enraged at that smuggler."

"Well, what did you expect? He placed weapons in our moons. I'm surprise I didn't think to look there," the mantis said, fidgeting with his weapons.

"Oh, come on Acro. Who would?" the lizard said, trying to calm his paranoid friend down.

"I would, Saura. This is my thing. Who leads the conspiracy theories discussion at work?" he asked of his friend as the elevator opened, leading tem into the hallway to the airfield.

"As far as I remember, you're the _only_ one," Saura jabbed at him, walking an even pace through the hallway with Acro trailing just behind him. "No one believes those ridiculous theories you come up with.

"And that will lead to there downfall," Acro said ominously. Saura scoffed at him.

"Sure, if you say so. Tell me, what's your latest theory?" he asked, ready to pick holes in it.

"Not much of one, but I think that Swindle guy was lying to us," the mantis replied.

"About what?" he asked.

"The manifest! It's probably a trap."

"What would he have to gain by lying to us?" he asked, opening the door to the airfield. He could see an airship landing close to where Swindle's ship was. It was a medium sized one that could hold several people and supplies. Useful for getting people in and out of the city.

"I don't know. Crafty people like him don't leave their plans expose until it's too late, but we have to stop him from making his plans a reality," the mantis exclaim in a dramatic tone. Saura inwardly snicker at his friend dramatics, and replied again.

"Acro, you realize how improbable that is? I mean, he didn't even realize he was wanted for crimes he committed," Acro commented, looking at the crew that was getting off the ship.

"Yeah, well, you're entering the ship first. I'm not dying for your stupidity," Acro said, looking at Swindle's ship with a disgusted look.

"Uh hun, whatever. Hey, Aeolus! How did the raid go?" he asked the leader of the group. The leader looked at him before removing his helmet, revealing a bald, grey-skin individual. His black eyes were sullen, like he hadn't gotten any sleep in a while, and his skin was very wrinkly.

"Uneventful, unfortunately," he said in a husky tone. The other members of his group had spread out around the airfield to check out the other ships and talk to some other officials on the airfield, leaving the leader with the two guards. "We raided the place and found no one there. All evidence was erased, which leave us no source of where the sudden surge of advanced weapons came from," he informed them.

"Well then, we got good news for you. We might know where the weapons have started come," Saura said.

"You do?" he asked in a stilted surprise.

"Yeah, follow us to this ship," he said, gesturing Swindle's ship. The trio walked over there swiftly and Saura opened the door.

"So, who does this ship belong to?" he asked as they enter it.

"An arms dealing cybertronian by the name of Swindle. We think his weapons are what the Novus are using against us," Acro said.

"However, according to Swindle, he thinks they stole the weapons from him as he doesn't remember selling such a vast amount to them. We don't know if it's true or not, but we're here to obtain the manifest and see if it could be possible," Saura explained.

"Do you think he is telling the truth?" he asked.

"Personally, I think its bullshit!" Acro said, getting a bit worked up. "No way would someone be that sloppy."

"Eh, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt," Saura said as they enter the bedroom. "I think he spreads himself too thin and can't keep everything in order. It makes sense he can't keep everything in check," he explained as he crouched under the berth and stretch his arm around under the bed looking for the manifest. "Ah-ha! I think I found it!" he said as he pulled out a datapad that was taped under the bed. "Looks like he was telling the truth."

"Well then," Aeolus muttered, a inkling of happiness escaping his voice, "let's go back to this Swindle fellow."

"Good. I can't wait to see his lying face when he sees the truth," Acro said.

"Do I have to remind you that we have no idea whether he's lying or not. It's premature to think he's guilty of selling them-"

_BOOM_

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the airfield. Swindle's ship was rocked by it, causing the group to brace themselves. The flames cover one side of the ship and the forces from it caused it to rocked sideways. Items were thrown around the interior of the ship, including the people in the ship, due to the objects not being bolted to the walls.. Outside the ship, the explosion was causing untold amounts of damage to the other ships and personnel.

Acro groaned as he took a uneasy stepped back up, and looked around. Aeolus was already up, none the worse for wear. Saura was a different story, as his one of his legs were being crushed by an object. Aeolus quickly made his way over to him, Acro doing the same. Soon, they had lifted the object over his leg, but the damage was already done. His leg was broken, the leg twisted at an odd angle and the noticeable amount of blood around the leg.

"That doesn't looked good," Aeolus said as he looked at the wound.

"No kidding, ah!" Saura yelled, gasping in pain. "What the hell happen?" he asked them.

"It… sounded like an explosion," Acro guessed. "Why did one happen?"

"Let's carried Saura out and figured it out," Aeolus recommend, taking Saura's left shoulder and waited for Acro to take the right. Acro dropped down on his four legs and grabbed Saura's other shoulder. The group headed towards the door out, which was turned on its side. The three bended over a little bit as they maneuvered out of the room. The group entered the main area, standing on its walls. The group looked out the pilot's cockpit to see if they could get out that way, but one looked made it instantly noticeable that it was impossible. Flames and debris were covering it, blocking the way out. Worse yet, flames were coming into the ship, threatening to burn them alive if they didn't find a way out. They looked for the original way out, but that was blocked by the ground.

"Dammit, how are we going to find a way out?" Acro asked the two. The three looked around for a way out until Saura noticed something.

"There," he pointed to a weak structure of the ship that looked ready to come apart. The pack immediately headed over there and checked it out. Indeed, it did looked it could be pushed out of the way, but it required a bit of force to push it out.

"Hold on to him," Aeolus ordered the mantis, leaving them to engage the wall. He looked at it and saw it clinging to the ship by a few wires. Aeolus immediately drew his knife and cut the wires on the left and pushing it opened, leaving him to look to the airfield. "Come on," he motioned for the two, who immediately got their feet into action, getting each other out of the ship. Acro first, follow by Saura, who Acro helped out, and lastly, Aeolus, who barely managed the flames that were coming to consume him. With one life-threatening challenge done, they looked around the airfield.

Several ship were in shatters, torn to pieces by the explosion. Many of the personnel were caught in the explosion, who burnt to death, several internal failure due to g-forces, or were dismember and crushed by debris. Several people were trying their hardest to contained the fire, using whatever they can. They heard someone shouting the the helicopters were bring water in 5 minutes. The group looked at the struggling people using fire extinguisher and buckets from below to tame the fire as best as they can, but not doing much to help.

"How did this happen," Aeolus asked to himself.

"Had to be Novus. No one else could've wanted to do this to us," Acro immediately said, looking at the fire. Saura silently stared at the fire, agreeing with Acro in his mind.


	7. Job Offer

The explosion shook the building, gaining the attention of Swindle and Dedan in the interrogation room. "What the fuck was that?" Dedan shouted.

"Felt like an explosion," Swindle said nervously, wringing his hands.

"Dammit! Security got sloppy," Dedan muttered. "This is coming out of their pay."

"Why was that explosion set off for?" Swindle asked.

"Must be Novus attacking us. Probably going after something critical," Dedan replied.

"Should you go out there and help them?" Swindle asked, thinking of a way out of here,

"Hey, I'm not going to ignore my responsibilities and leave you alone, scumbag. It's their fault, they can solve it by themselves," Dedan answered harshly. "It's like I'm working with mentally retarded people who never read a damn book."

"My sympathies," Swindle said, leaning back. Swindle couldn't help but feel something wrong with all this.

"Are you ready?" Swindle blinked.

"What was that?" Swindle asked.

"I haven't say anything," Dedan told him. "You got something wrong up there too," he asked, pointing to his head.

"Remember, once the power is down, we kill Dedan and whoever it is he's interrogating. It's some Cybertronian, so it make take more shots."

Swindle stand up and looked around the room. He didn't see any place else that the voice could've come from as there was no one here but the two of them.

"Is something wrong with you?" Dedan asked, getting up to look down at him.

"Ready. Killing the power in 10 seconds." This was accented by the sound of guns powering up and cocking, a mixture of laser and ballistic based weaponry and they all came from the door.

"A hit squad is coming in," Swindle told him.

"What? When?!" Dedan asked.

"About five seconds," he replied.

"Shit, get on the wall next to the door now!" Dedan told him. Immediately, the two of them both took one side of it as soon as the power was kicked off. Immediately, the door was forced opened, showing four beams of light entering the room. Quickly, gunfire went off in short bursts that ended quickly.

"Hey, they're not there!" a voice pointed out.

"What, is that info faulty?" another asked.

"It shouldn't be," the first one said.

"Alright," said another voice, "let's head out and find Dedan. He has to be around this section somewhere. The sooner we do, the sooner we can get out. That explosion is only going to distract them for so long." With that, the beams of light went away, leaving the two to give silent noises of relief. At that moment, the emergency power went on, bathing the room and hallways with a small light. Slowly, Dedan popped his head out of the doorway to see if they were truly gone.

"Looks like they are gone," he told Swindle. "How did you know?" Dedan asked him.

"I… I don't know. I just heard them from behind the door and knew we had to hide," he replied.

"That's impossible. The doors and walls here are soundproof," Dedan replied, glaring at the merchant.

But, he heard them, loud and clearly. What the frag was going on with him?

"Look, I don't know how, I just did, alright. We have to kill these guys before they realize that they are complete morons for not checking the room," Swindle told him. Dedan glared at the merchant for a little longer before shaking his head.

"You have a point," Dedan agreed, stepping out of the door and into the halls to figure out where they went. "These fuckers are after me."

"Any idea where they might go?" Swindle asked.

"If I were them, I would probably head to the security rooms to figure out our location, but the power's out. They would probably head to the power generators quickly to turn the power back on and use the cameras to figure out where we are."

"So…?"

"We head to the security room and stage an ambush. More than likely there's five of them. One in the security room, four roving around to kill us. We head to the security rooms, kill that guys, and lead the others into an ambush."

"Sounds like a good plan. I assuming you got a gun."

"No, I don't."

"What? Why not?" Swindle asked, shocked.

"Protocol dictates that I can't enter the room with a weapon. Such a stupid rule," Dedan grumbled.

"Alright then, lead the way," Swindle told him, gesturing with a wave of his hand. Dedan glared at the mocking 'Con before walking right.

"This way," he told him, running quickly. Swindle followed along as they went through several hallways and corridors, a couple of dead personal in them who decided to stay behind. Dedan quickly cursed them for their incompetence before reaching a big open room with a security room at the end of it. Slowly, Dedan poked his head out to see a lone guard in black armor behind the window to the security room waiting around, looking pretty relaxed with a pistol in his holster. "One motherfucker. Doesn't look too concerned. Easy target," Dedan reported. "Stay here." Dedan crouched and traversed the room and entered the security room, staying out of the guards line of sight. The guard was chatting over a comm. link to his men.

"Yes, it shouldn't be that hard. Just flip a couple switches and you're done. Don't know why you're having such a problem with this," the techie chastised, not knowing that Dedan had already closed the distance between them and was positioning himself to disarm him. Before the techie could speak to his men, Dedan grabbed the pistol from his holster and aimed it at the techie. The techie looked at the interrogator shocked right before the power came back on, bathing the room in an impressive light. Swindle entered the room to see

"You are going to direct them to section C," Dedan told him. The techie looked at the tall figure for a few seconds before saying over the comm. link.

"They're he-"

SMACK!

The techie's head lashed back at the fist made contact with his face and felled to the ground, unmoving.

"Well now, that's going to cause some problems, but at least I get to interrogate him later," Dedan complained as he went to a weapon's locker and pulled out a couple of rifles. "Here, take this," Dedan told him, throwing him one. Swindle caught it and looked at it. It looked to be an advanced ballistic weapon from Arcaedion. He quickly noticed that Dedan's was a laser rifle from Dabola. Both of them were hard-hitting weapons that could chew through armor. "Quick, get to the window," Dedan commanded as he went to the door way. Swindle quickly took his place and crouched behind it, waiting for any of them to come. It didn't take long before he heard something.

"Remember, no messing around. As soon as you see them, shoot," a voice said from the right of the window.

"Dedan, from the right," Swindle whispered.

"Roger. I'll see if I can move to an area where I can flank them. No chances with these guys. As soon as they entered your crosshairs, shoot," Dedan ordered as he went back into the big room and quickly went to a spot across from the security room with good cover. Almost immediately after, four men entered the room, taking cover in the direction of the security room.

"I'm moving in," one of them said, as he went out of cover and quickly approach the security room. Before he could get much further, Swindle quickly popped his head out and fired a quick bullet into the soldier's head, sending him down quick. Immediately, the other members of his squad started firing at his position. Dedan took this opportunity to pop out of cover and shoot a beam into the head of one of the other soldiers.

"We're flank!" one of the two remaining soldiers said as he quickly took cover in between two objects that protected him from both Dedan and Swindle. The other guard tried to reach for better cover, but took a bullet in the leg from Swindle, causing him to flounder. Dedan took this chance to release another beam into his chest, killing him. "Shit!" the last soldier said, as he tried to figure a way out of the situation he was in.

"Hey, fuckhead!" Dedan yelled out. "Put your weapon down and I might not kill you for ruining my day!"

"Screw you!" he said as he tossed something out towards him. Dedan quickly realized that it was grenade intending to blow him to smithereens and quickly leapt out of cover to a different one. The lone guard remaining quickly sent a barrage of bullets in his direction. Swindle quickly poked his head out and shot another bullet straight to the back of the soldiers head, killing him instantly.

"I think that's all of them," Swindle said out loud to Dedan.

"Good," Dedan muttered as he walked out of cover, holding his side. "That'll teach them to mess with me," he muttered as he went back inside the security room. Swindle wondered what he was doing until he quickly kicked the unconscious techie in the stomach, earning a groan of pain from him.

"Alright, tell me, how the fuck did pieces of shit like you got in this building," Dedan quickly questioned. "Tell me, or I'll just put a bullet through you right now," Dedan threaten.

"You'll never get any information out of me," the techie groaned out in pain.

"Why?"

"Because I'm already dead," the techie said with a chuckle. Dedan and Swindle wondered what could he meant until they heard a beep. Than another beep. Than another, quickly speeding in repletion.

"Oh, scrap/shit!" the two said out loud as they quickly made their way out of the room.

BOOM!

An explosion quickly consumed the room, slightly tinging the two as they tumbled to the ground. The two gave a groan as they got back up to see the damage down.

"Well, I'm pissed," Dedan said as he observed the flames in the security room.

"I'm feeling about the same," Swindle agreed. Dedan glared at the criminal.

"Okay, since it's pretty obvious to me now that you're not working these scumbags even without the manifest, I guess you're not guilty of selling them weapons."

"Thank you, I appreciate th-"

"But, you still store a shitload of weapons on our moons and you will still need to be arrested."

"Fragging glitch spawn!" Swindle yelled out.

"Relax. If you sold them the weapons, we would have to take you to a prison where you spend the rest of your long, miserable life there. Since they stole it from you, we'll just have to confiscate the weapons and send you packing with a warning to _never come here again_ ," Dedan stressed the last part. "If you do, we'll probably blow you up and save us a of of trouble."

"I guess that's better than going to jail," Swindle agreed, silently relief. Suddenly, loud footsteps came from every hall in the area as a squadron of guards came down each of them.

"We heard gunshots and explosions," one of them said as they observed the area. "Obviously, you took care of them."

"Would one of you pieces of shit please explain to me how the fuck a security breach happened?" Dedan questioned the guards, causing all of them to take an immediate step back.

"Uh, the airfield was bombed, sir. Estimated amount of ships destroyed was around 70%, sir," the same guard replied.

"Wait, does that mean my ship was destroyed!" Swindle questioned as he stepped closer to the guard who was pointing a gun at him.

"Who's he?" the guard ask.

"Someone we arrested today," Dedan replied. "He was a high priority, but that's was obviously erroneous on out intel's part."

"How am I supposed to get off the planet now?" Swindle asked him.

"I reckoned that they'll fix it," Dedan told him.

"Oh, thank Primus," Swindle signed in relieve.

"But you'll be one of the last ones we'll do," Dedan told him.

"How long is that going to take?" Swindle asked.

"Depends on the damage. How bad is it?" he asked the guard.

"At least 50% of the ship damaged are completely destroyed, mostly those caught in the center," the guard replied.

"Where was yours?" Dedan asked.

"Near the center," Swindle growled out.

"Then that's a problem. I suppose we can get you a new ship. You'll just have to sign up as a... special consultant and work it off," Dedan told him.

"And how long will that take?" Swindle asked him.

Dedan thought it through before answering him.

"5 years," he replied.

Swindle run that through in his head before he came up with the appropriate response.

He fainted.


	8. Meeting A Old, Dead Friend

 

Swindle gave a groan as he got onlined to a murky blackness. He looked to his sides to see that it stretched endlessly. Swindle slowly got his body to a sitting position to see a door quite a ways ahead of him, visible only by the faint red accent lights on it and the blue button on the side that was glowing. Seeing a way out, Swindle got up and started walking towards it, trying to dispel the bout of nausea that was coming onto him. The firefight in his place of imprisonment was not a fun one and he wanted to relax a little bit. Swindle took note of the fact that this place didn't look anything like the building, so they probably just moved him somewhere else, although where was pretty hard to figure out. They don't build buildings like this.

Swindle reached the door and hit the button, expecting it to open the door in front of him. What he didn't expect was to hear the distinct sound of a door _behind_ him opening. He turned around to see a door that was impossibly close to his position open up to a room that was well-lit. ' _Someone has an odd sense of humor._ ' Swindle headed over there quickly, noting the fact that the distance reaching it was _shorter_ than before when he reached the first door. He entered it to see that it was a type of elevator, to his relief. He entered and quickly examine the buttons, only to find a single blue button. Confused, but seeing no other way to go, he pressed it and the door closed and moved with a jolt, leaving Swindle off balance, but with enough sense to grab the bat affixed to the walls to keep himself from falling. The elevator moved quickly, not stopping with its movement. Almost as soon as it started, it stopped and opened Swindle to his a similar blackness.

Annoyed with this situation, he stepped out and looked around the area for anything to continue his advance. It didn't take long before he noticed a ladder with green railings heading up that he can used. The door closed behind him with a rumble, leaving him bathe in darkness as he headed off to the ladder. The distance was mercifully short and he reached it in less than a minute. What side he was supposed to use was a bit ambiguous so he just climbed up the closest side. The ladder was sturdy and the steps were well-spaced for him. His bulky form wasn't the best thing for climbing ladders, but it was good enough. Onslaught made sure 'being killed because he couldn't climb a ladder' was never in any official report to the Big M.

The climb was a long one, leaving Swindle in a void of darkness except for the light from the railing and his optics. The world ever-present blackness was enough to convince Swindle that he wasn't in reality. Probably a dream of some sort. And if reading way too many bad romance novels and watching soap operas that Blast Off watched when he hogged the TV, it's that a dream as complex and weird as this one was important somehow. How, he didn't quite know. He was trapped on a planet where the only way out was to work it out for five years. That didn't leave much for internal soul-searching, but a good look in the database to figure out how much of a stupid idea all of this was. If there was one constant lesson that Swindle had learned over the years, it's that very major mistakes are usually your own fault and no one else. Still, it didn't justify making a long, complex dream over. Was he missing something?

Swindle had finally finished his ascent and climbed to the new ground. It didn't take long for him to find the walkway lighted up by green lights. Swindle quickly made his way over to it and examine it. It was a pretty wide walkway that was made of durable steel. Good enough for him to walk across without falling and breaking his spinal strut. The railing on the side helped as well. He quickly made his way on it and trek across it to the next endpoint of this tedious journey. Swindle wondered exactly what all of this meant. Was it all a metaphor for how tedious getting off the planet would be? Not surprising if it's true. Was it leading to an unknown truth that he didn't know about? Possibly, although what it could be was confusing to him. Yeah, he dealt in secrets, but never his own. What exactly did he not know about himself that he could learn from this dream?

He reached the end of the walkway and saw a doorway that led somewhere. Looking for a way out, Swindle headed into it and entered it. The room was a long, large, yellow hallway, leading to a grand, ornate door. The hallway was decorated with several pictures and life-like statues. It didn't take long for Swindle to figure out that they were images of important events and people. The pictures had events such as him being held on trial in front of the Senate, joining the Decepticons, meeting his Combaticon brethren, and the explosion, with one looking like it was mid-progress. The statues had his Combaticons brethren, his creator ( _of course he would be in there, that slagger_ ), Megatron and a few other minor important people. Strangely enough, there was two other statue in production, of who, he didn't quite know.

Swindle walked across the hall and passed the historical events and figures to the grand door. The door simply required Swindle to pushed it, which he did quickly, with much force considering the door was ten times his size and extremely heavy. He pushed against the door until against the door until he entered the room to find a very, very large room. The room was a circular room with decorative light fixtures and other such stuff that highlighted the room's magenta color. In the center of the room was an absolutely massive statue of Swindle. The statue was a pose of him standing, having his arm out to greet someone with a thousand watt smile that contrasted with the scars on his face no buffer could remove. Swindle gazed at the statue of himself and the strange room in general before looking for the door.

It didn't take long for him to find a much more sci-fi looking door on the other side of the room with a window on one side. Swindle quickly made his way over there and it automatically opened it to a sterile white room. Swindle glared inside the room, suspicious, before taking a few steps into the room, where the door closed and an automatic voice said "beginning decontamination." This was might by a series of sounds that sounded like gas bursting from pipes as liquid spread all over him, cleaning him of any technopathogens. Swindle wondered the point of all this, considering this was a dream and not reality, so dying of pathogen was unlikely. Nonetheless, the room kept spraying him with the liquid for a full minute before ending and a quick drying progress, making him clean, free of pathogens, and annoyed, although strangely rejuvenated. "Decontamination complete. Opening." At that, Swindle waited for the door to opened, only for the window which they used to view people come open instead. ' _My mind is an odd one,'_ Swindle noted before hopping over the ledge of the window and heading for the next door and opening it.

And finding a room full of rusted and decaying corpses. Swindle kept his systems from purging at the sight of the corpses. His gazed flickered to the nearest corpse, identifying it as a Cybertronian with a brown paint job that was flecking off. He instantly recognize who it was: a drug addict that was a popular buyer of Swindle's wares until he overdosed on something Swindle had given him. If he followed the same pattern of everyone else here, than the room was more than likely full corpses that he had cause the death of, which was just perfect. He most definitely needed the weight of his sins crushing down on his shoulders. Disturbed by the sight, Swindle turned his gazed upward to find a door waiting to be opened. Needing to figure out exactly what this dream was about, Swindle stepped into the room, trying his best not to trip over the bodies in the room and ignoring the crunching sound he heard when stepping on strung out limbs. On the way, he noticed a couple of familiar faces, the two guards he killed on Pz-zazz when held prisoner. Obviously, the room was kept up-to-date.

He had finally reached the door to the next room and opened it. The room was a quaint little orangeroom, with two chairs and a small table in the middle. The table held two cubes of energon, with a large bottle if a refreshments were needed. Unlike the rest of the rooms, this didn't have a door or any noticeable way out. More than likely, it was just a waste of time, and he should've figured out another way to open the door in the contamination room. Getting ready to leave, Swindle attempted to shut the door…

…Only to be shove in the rom by an unknown force. Swindle topple forward in surprise as he landed on the floor. He could hear footsteps behind him as they entered and closed the door, the clicking of a lock indicating that it wouldn't open anytime soon. Scared by his dream that was turning bad, he got up and looked at his surprise, ready to attack, only to get rid of those thoughts as soon as he saw who it was.

Onslaught.

Onslaught looked, for the most part, okay, despite being covered with ash and rust. He stood as he always did, straight and proud, even if the rust made him have to bend his back a little. Swindle was happy for a little bit before realizing how weird this was. After all, _he was dead_. Deader than Cybertron. One wonders how Swindle didn't go crazy after his death.

"Take a seat," he beckoned, waving his hand at the seats there, which looked a bit weird, considering he was missing a couple of digits. Nonetheless, Swindle follow his first order from him for a long time and took a seat in the chair on the left. Onslaught followed suit and took a seat in the chair across from him, looking noticeably relaxed at the feeling of sitting in it. Swindle was simultaneously relaxed and unnerved at his presence. Dead men usually haunt your mind if there's closure to be made in the near future.

"So, how you do?" Swindle asked simply. It was a stupid question, but he had to ask something.

"Aside from dying, I've been doing fine," Onslaught told him simply, although there was a hint of mockery in that tone, as if asking him if he was really serious with that question.

"Figures," Swindle muttered quickly, mentally kicking himself for a stupid question. "So, why are you here?" he asked, wanting an answer. "Do you want to provide closure or something?"

"No, I want to provide a warning," he told him, reaching for a cube of energon and taking a sip from it. "Hmm, nice texture to it. You should try it," he offered.

"Uh, no thank you," Swindle said nervously. "A warning?"

"Yes," Onslaught confirmed.

"But, exactly how do dead people deliver messages to me," Swindle asked him, not quite getting how a dead person in his subconscious was warning him of something.

"Simple, I manifested from your guilt," he told him, taking another sip before continuing. "Survivor's guilt is one heck of a guilt mechanism, and your mind created me as a sort of guide to it," he explained.

"Ah, okay," Swindle said, severally weirded out by his explanation. "So, what's the warning?"

"An extremely vague one, although I hope to get more details soon," he told him. "It's simply that a great evil is here," he told him.

"A great evil. No surprise. I've probably done enough bad things to generate several of them is this fragging weird place," Swindle replied, waving his arm in an exaggerated way.

"You misunderstand," Onslaught told him. "The great evil is a foreign one. A completely separate entity."

"Wait, what?!" Swindle asked, shocked. "You mean I'm being possessed or something like that?"

"Not quite," Onslaught told him. "You still have full control of the body, but he appears to be making some modifications. You remember your strange enhanced audial ability in the interrogation room?" he asked him.

"Uh, yeah."

"That was his doing. Now, I would normally express this as a benevolent ability of a spirit, but this being… it feels like nothing of the sort," he explained. "Tread carefully in the real world and in here," Onslaught told him.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Swindle asked, before a white light bathe the room.

* * *

He woke up.


	9. Along for a Ride

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Not dead yet. Happy Holidays.

Swindle felt nausea as he sat up from the bed he was on. He adjusted his optics to look around the small, light-blue room. It was a simple room, with a simple decor. A small dresser by his bed and a table at the wall with three chairs were the only things in the room. Swindle took note of the blanket on him and pushed it off messily. He didn't need that. He thought things through as he recalled what happened when he was last conscious. The arrest, the bombing, the shootout, the job offer to pay back the destroyed ship, and that odd dream. Now, here he was in this nondescript room. Just perfect.

Swindle got off the bed and headed for the gray door. There was a white, holographic button on the side that Swindle figured opened the door, so he pressed it. This was met with it turning red in refusal and quickly went back to white. Swindle gave a groan before taking a seat at the table. Obviously he would have to wait until someone lets him out. When, well… he didn't know.

This might be boring.

* * *

A couple of hours after Swindle fainted, Dedan glared at the demolished airfield in front of him, taking it all in. Most of the ships were destroyed or damaged in some way. The place was illuminated by some small isolated fires around the area, which were being take care of, as well as by floodlights. The floor and other areas were still stained with blood in a variety of colors from the causalities of the bombing. The injured had all been taken to the med-bay to heal them while the dead was taken to the morgue to identify and inform their loved ones of their death, as well as to make sure there wasn't any suspicious things regarding there death. The five terrorists' corpse were being searched for any information regarding the incident as well.

"What a mess…," came a voice behind him and he turned to see Aeolus looking at the area. He was still in his black combat uniform, his helmet placed in his arm.

"It's a clusterfuck," Dedan agreed, turning to look at him. "How did your mission go?"

"A waste of time," he answered. "We didn't find anything and all evidence were erased. However," he said, taking something out and handing it to him, "I think you wanted this."

"Hmm…?" he mummed as he took it and look at it.

"This is Swindle's manifest," he told him. "Saura brought that with him as me, him, and Acro escaped Swindle's ship during the explosion."

"You were in Swindle's ship as the explosion went off?" Dedan asked him.

"They asked me to help and the bomb went off after we found the manifest, which caused the ship to flip over with us in it. Saura's currently dealing with a broken leg that was crushed by some debris while Acro is staying with him to make sure he'll be fine," Aeolus explained to him.

"Alright," Dedan muttered as he looked through the manifest, his constant scowl growing deeper as he looked at it. "Dammit, that bastard was right. They jacked the weapons from him."

"Well, that's explains it," Aeolus sighed. "So, what are we doing with him?"

"Well, I want him to piss off and leave the planet, but his ship is broken, correct?" he asked him.

"It's… ruined," Aeolus answered. "It would be better to turn it into scrap metal then to fix it."

"Hmph, then we'll send him on as a consultant until he gets enough money to buy a ship or something to get off planet," Dedan explained.

"You know, you probably shouldn't be up and about right now," he told him. "After all, you were caught in an explosion."

"It barely touched me," he told him.

"Still, I heard you had to be bandaged," he told him.

"Minor ones. I can keep going for far longer than most people," Dedan explained as another soldier completely cover in a uniform came forward.

"Hey, sir!" a heavily modulated voice told him.

"What do you want, you moron?" Dedan asked him.

"Uh, I'm Kuji, a detective for the base sent to investigate the bombing and I may have figure out where it was when it went off," he explained.

"Really? Where?" he asked.

"Well," he said, looking at Aeolus, "the explosion originated _on his ship_."

"Huh?" Aeolus asked, surprised. "The explosion originated from my ship."

"Yes, furthermore, we confirmed that it was a caused by a bomb, as evident by left-over residue containing content that are not in the ship's fuel content, which meant the explosion had to come from a foreign source. Further researching revealing fragments that had the residue on it, meaning that it was brought in a box of some sort."

"Wait, are you saying… that one of my men brought the bomb to the base?" he asked, surprised.

"It… would appear that way," he said.

"Fucking hell…," Dedan muttered, holding his head in his hand. "I did not need this shit piled up on me." He turned to Aeolus. "How many went on the mission?"

"Uh, including me, eight people," he answered. "There's me, Koda, Daemon, Rife, Egrir, Apex, Kolt, and the pilot."

"Who's the pilot?"

"Uh, Tom," he told him.

"Tom?" Dedan asked again. "You went from all of those badass names and end it on _Tom_?"

"You see why I only referred to him as the pilot," he remarked.

"Well, anyway," Kuji interrupted, "if those are the only people, one of them brought the bomb to the base."

"Including Aeolus," Dedan muttered, glaring at him.

"It isn't me, although I understand that you will need to investigate everyone, including me," he offered.

"Good to see you realize that," Kuji muttered, scratching at his helmeted head. "Best to round all of them up and get them together. Keep them contained."

"Get to it then," Dedan ordered. "Aeolus, assist him."

"Understood," he said, the two of them heading off. Dedan glared at their retreating form before looking at the manifest again.

* * *

"Urgh," Saura grunted in bed. The doctor's had finished fixing his leg and had went to help others. Acro was with him, nervously fidgeting to himself, pacing around the sky blue room, and mumbling softly to himself. It was kind of annoying to him. "Could you quit pacing around the room?" he asked. "You're making me nervous." Acro stopped and looked at him with a worried look before he went back to pacing and mumbling. "Come on… if you're going to pace around, then at least talk louder."

"Sorry," Acro murmured, talking a little louder. "Just thinking everything through in my head."

"A bomb was snuck in, that's it. Nothing more complex than that," Saura told him.

"No, there's something more to this," he told him.

"Does Occam's razor ever drift into your thought process?" the lizard asked sarcastically.

"It's never simple," he muttered, pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth…

"You really need to calm down," Saura repeated. "If my leg wasn't broken, I would be doing it by force."

"Sorry, but I'm only giving the appropriate level of response to situations like this," the mantis answered.

"Look, it isn't a conspiracy," the lizard tried to comfort him. "It's just warfare."

"No, in order for our defenses to be breach, they need someone on the inside," he explained to the lizard. "Our defenses are too good for a simple attack to breach it. Someone has to be leaking info."

"You forget, we are capable of erring," he rebuked. "A defense is only has good has the person behind it."

"That's true, but… this all happen when that arms dealer came here," Acro mutter thinking it through.

"The manifest match exactly what Swindle had stored at one of our moons. It makes sense for Novus to steal from him without him knowing," he told him. "After all, he's just one person trying to keep up with a vast system. It's impossible for him to keep up with everything."

"Maybe, but,-"

"No buts, just take a seat and calm down," Saura inserted himself forcibly, sitting up in bed. Acro looked at him sheepishly, has mandibles opening and shutting nervously.

"…Alright," he mumbled taking a seat in a chair next to him. "Sorry."

"It's okay," he muttered, laying back down on his bed, breathing heavier.

"Shit… I stressed you out too much," Acro muttered, feeling guilty.

"Nah, that's just the broken leg affecting my lung," he murmured sarcastically, chuckling softly to himself.

"Right, sorry," he murmured.

"Ugh…," the lizard murmured. "Stupid lungs."

"You should probably get that checked out," the mantis muttered.

"Nah, I'll be fine. We got more things to worry about," he answered, relaxing himself to sleep. "Want to stay the night?" he asked him.

"Sure," Acro muttered, relaxing in his chair for once. "I can stay the night. Just make sure you get better, alright?"

"Yeah. It's just the leg. I'll be back up in a few days and back to Dedan telling me to stick my foot up people's ass," Saura told him with a chuckle before going to sleep quickly. Acro looked at his laborious breathing, before falling asleep himself.

* * *

"Alright, why are we hear?" said a bald, pure black skin individual with red eyes to Aeolus, who was with Kuji and the six others who were on the mission. All of them were still in their uniform, although all of them had taken off their helmet barring Kuji and another individual standing taller than everyone else, his arms cross and looking at everyone.

"There's been a breach, Daemon," Aeolus told him.

"Breach?" said the short hair, purple skin women in the back. "An explosion is much more than a breach."

"Not that kind of breach, Koda," Aeolus rebuked. "I mean, we have a double agent in our mist."

"A-a-a mole?" said the smoking, thin, blue insectoid nearby.

"Great, you got Apex nervous," a similarly black-skin woman with medium-length hair complained nearby.

"Rife, calm down," Aeolus told her.

"Hmpf, this is so stupid," she muttered, nudging the tall, masked person next to her. "You agreed, Egrir?"

"Most certainly," came a heavily modulated voice.

"Huh-huh, right…," a rough looking, peach-skin humanoid muttered. "So, one of us caused the explosion somehow?"

"To be specific, one of you somehow brought a bomb and blew it up," Kuji specified, looking at his datapad. "How, I don't quite know, but it was located in your ship and you're the only ones who could've done it."

"Shiiiiiiit," the insectoid muttered, smoking even faster now. "Fuck, fuck, fuck…,"

"And I thought Dedan had a dirty mouth," Kuji muttered. "Look, until we figure out which of you did it, we're locking you guys up by yourself until one of you either confess or we figure it out."

"You serious?" Koda asked.

"Yes."

"But, that means I can't go kill anything while I'm stuck here," she moaned.

"Bloodthirsty, aren't we?" Egrir asked.

"Enough bantering, do you realize what's going on?" Kuji asked. "One of you guys set off the bomb and killed a bunch of our people. We're having to deal with so many mourners and it's so annoying. The sooner we solve this, the sooner we can get back to more important stuff"

"Well, will the bomber please speak up?" Daemon asked. "Giving up would be the best course of action for you."

"They won't," Rife spoke up. "The coward gone this far, he isn't going to give up now."

"Well, then we'll just have to stay here together until we figure it out," Aeolus told them. "I hope you have something to read."

* * *

"Bored…." Swindle murmured in a dazed. "Bored, bored, bored, boreeeeed." He was obviously very bored at having to wait for someone to come talk to him. His boredom was getting to the point that he was seriously considering doing physical harm to himself in order to defeat the boredom. Right now, he was pinching at the wires in the cracks of his armor, keeping himself awake with the jolts of pain. It honestly… felt kind of nice to him for some reason. Strange.

He finally heard, like an angelic choir, the door opening and he heard a familiar raspy voice mutter familiar words. "I fucking hate today." Swindle turned to see Dedan walking over and taking a seat across from him, a datapad in his hand. He laid the datapad down and glowered at him. "Congratulations, you are officially _not_ the worst thing that has happen today. In fact, all things considered, you're quite possibly the fucking _highlight_."

"Uh… problems," Swindle asked him, slightly nudging his chair backward at his glared.

"Enough to give me an aneurism," Dedan muttered. "Alright, here." He slid the datapad to him. "Your contract."

"My… contract?" Swindle asked bending over to look at it.

"You want a ship, we need help. That's what we talked about earlier. About five years and then you can go free with a new ship," Dedan explained. "Five years and you can go back to your shitty civil war."

"And if I disagree, you'll ship me off to prison for the rest of my life," Swindle figured out.

"You're a genius," he muttered.

"Right, well," Swindle murmured, looking the contract over before signing his name on it with his finger and giving it back, "I got no other choice."

"Hmph," Dedan muttered before picking it up and looking at it. "I can't believe I have someone named Swindle sign a contract," he muttered before getting up. Swindle copy him and got up as well. "Did I tell you to get up!?" Swindle paused, looking nervously at the pissed off soldier, before sitting back down. Dedan looked down upon him (extremely easy to do) and barked out, "Now get up."

"Uh," Swindle murmured before getting up and retorting, "You're screwing with me."

"Oh, is that a problem?" Dedan asked before he said, "Let me remind you that I'm your boss, your commander, your _leader_." Swindle flinched at those words as he continued to speak. "Let me make things clear, I don't give a flying fuck about your war and your allegiances in it. Here, on this planet, you're _my_ soldier, understood?" Swindle stood frozen in Dedan's fiery glare, taking note that Dedan officially reached the upper pantheons of his 'Do not fucked with' list.

"I… understand," he agreed, a hitch in his voice.

"Hmph, you're already doing better than some of the men in my command," he told him as he headed out the door. "Follow me. Now." Swindle did so immediately, the two of them heading out of the door.

"So, where are we going?" Swindle asked.

"Simple, I have a problem and we're going to investigate it," he told him.

"Problem?" Swindle asked.

"A mole is in our ranks and we have to sniff him out. We got it down between eight of our soldiers and we'll have to thin it out from there," he told him.

"Oh, so that's the problem you've been having," Swindle realized.

"Yes, and it's really pissing me off," Dedan muttered. "I hate traitors more than anything else in this bitter life."

"Understood."

"Good."

The two trudged along the empty hallways in silence, which bother Swindle as the two of them walked along.

"Say, where is everyone?" Swindle asked him.

"Oh yeah, you don't have a window in your room, do you?" Dedan asked. "It's well into the night, which meant that we're at the graveyard shift. We're still on high alert, with slightly more people than usual, but we sent people to rest for the night."

"Oh," Swindle murmured as the two of them left entered an elevator and started going up. "Where this elevator going?"

"The airfield," Dedan answered.

"The airfield? You think we can find any clues there?" Swindle asked him.

"No. We're going there to get a ride out, you moron," Dedan chastised him, glaring at him.

"Ride out? We're leaving the building?" Swindle asked him.

"Yes, we are," Dedan told them as the elevator opened to let them out. The two of them headed out to a helicopter waiting for them nearby, already ready to go. Swindle entered to see a masked person in a full uniform there. The masked person looked up at them and addressed them.

"Hey Dedan. Good to see you. And this must be the cybertronian arms dealer I've been hearing about," he said, looking at him.

"He would be the one, Kuji," Dedan confirmed, taking a seat next to him. Swindle followed along and took a seat across from taking up quite a bit of space due to his wide frame.

"He's a bit… wide," Kuji noticed.

"He is, but he can handle himself. I can confirm it myself," he defended him.

"I heard about that. Got in a shootout at a security station with a few of the terrorists," he said.

"Yeah, and he showed off some good hearing," Dedan said. "He heard past the interrogation room door."

"What? But that's impossible!" Kuji shouted in disbelief. "Those rooms are soundproof."

"Yeah… I don't know either," Swindle murmured.

"It's weird, but I don't mind. It saved my life," Dedan continued to defend him. "Now then, pilot, are you going to get us going?" he asked him.

"You got it, sir," he said, lifting the helicopter off the ground and started flying off.

Swindle gazed outside the helicopter to the cityscape below. He could see a sea of artificial light as far as the optic could see and the buildings littered the area. The sky was completely cloudless, which showed off the black sky and a few of what looked like… flying building.

He could hear the other two talking as he gazed out at the scenery. "So, you're sure we'll find clues there?" Dedan asked.

"The bomb had to come from outside of the base, so the only time any of them could get the bomb and plant it was at that seemingly meaningless raid."

"It was a trap so they could get the bomb on board."

"You deduce that correctly. Good job."

"Hmph. I should've figured out something was wrong."

Swindle inhale a deep breath as he relaxed in his seat and continued to listen to the other two prattled on. It was obvious that he was just along for the ride.


	10. Landing and Passing Blame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character Development! All this time and all I got is character development!

"Fuck…," Apex muttered, washing his face in the bathroom sink. The room was a calm tan color with a sink, toilet, and window that someone can sit at to look outside. The blue insectoid was not having a fun time. He was never a calm individual, but this was throwing him into overdrive. People trying to sabotage the place he lived in, blowing the airfield up, and making him worry about his bedfellows slitting his throat while he sleeps. He already hated Novus, but this was taking it so far, he was nearing the end of a marathon.

*Knock! Knock! Knock!*

"Apex," Aeolus shouted through the closed door, causing the insect to jump. "You've been in there for a while. Is everything alright?"

"Fine, sir. I've just been losing my mind from all this bullshit!" he yelled through the door. "Could you have a little bit more care?"

"Apex, please calm down," he tried to soothe him.

"Hey, fuck you. Now please leave me alone," he told him, walking over to the closed toilet and taking a seat on it, shaking.

"Apex, I don't want to leave anyone alone and you know why," Aeolus told him and Apex hated to admit that Aeolus had a point. If it was someone else insisting that people don't enter the bathroom while they were in it, he would be the first to break the door down to make sure that they weren't doing anything in there, but he wanted to stay in there. Kept him away from the others.

"Just let me stay in here, please," he told him. Aeolus stayed silent as Apex took a cigarette out, placed it in his mouth and lit it up. He took a large drag from it and he immediately calmed down. He needed this.

"Alright, look, I understand why you would stay hold up in there, but we can't let you stay in there by yourself, so which of us do you trust the most?" Aeolus asked him. Apex let out a breath of smoke, pondering on the answer, before answering.

"I guess you, sir," Apex answered.

"Really? I thought it would be Kolt," he answered surprised.

"Eh, you mean well. It's everyone else I don't trust. I'm sure the rest are thinking along similar lines," he answered, taking another drag. "You're by far the most trustworthy here."

"Didn't know I was so well liked," Aeolus murmured.

"Yeah, well, there you go," he answered.

"Still, you have to let me in so that you're not by yourself," he told him, much to Apex's annoyance.

"Ughhhhhh… fine," he muttered, walking up and unlocking the door, letting him in. Aeolus walked in calmly and Apex closed the door behind him, locking it. "Don't mind the smoke," he told him, taking a seat back on the toilet. Aeolus walked to the window and looked outside to the city, lit up by many lights from buildings and light posts.

"So, Apex, what do you think of everyone?" he asked him, not taking his gaze from outside.

"At least one of them is a traitor. What else?" he asked, taking a drag.

"Well, what's your feeling on them?" he asked. "You must have an informed opinion."

"Well, I've a part of your group the shortest amount of time, so I don't know why you're asking me," he wondered.

"You're the one who have the least amount of personal motivation about everyone. On the one hand, that could make you a good mole for the enemy," Aeolus explained.

"Hey, don't go saying that!" he shouted.

"On the other hand, you have no compunction about telling me what they've been doing," he gave his other point, interesting Apex. "Now, listen, a couple of them are suspicious about you due to your recent transfer and this happening, but I think that's no good reason to be suspicious about you. I believe that one bad thing is just a coincidence."

"Thanks… sir," he thanked, moving his leg to tossed the spent cigarette in the toilet. "Well, if you want info on what I think of them, sure. While I don't trust any of them particularly well, I will say that I _really_ don't trust Egrir, Koda, and Daemon. Egrir is violent to an extreme has been acting strange ever since we got here, Koda is equally violent and I saw here staying behind at the ship for an extended amount of time, and Daemon is just morally reprehensible; not making him a suspect would be stupid. Of all of us here, I would bet the stack on one of those three being a mole. Hell, I even bet that all three of them are moles." He capped that explanation by getting another cigarette and lighting it up to calm himself down. "Damn that got me worked up."

"Well… that was informative," Aeolus muttered, looking out. "You know, I don't like doubting any of you, including Tom, who isn't in the squad. You're all under my command and following my orders. I would like to think that every one of us that went there is loyal, even if some of them are not shining examples of morality."

"Yeah, well, someone screwed your fantasy over," he told him.

"It appears so," he agreed. "You insectoids are always so suspicious."

"Yeah, well, docs said we're practically overdosing on dopamine while lacking in NMDA receptors to balance it out. You won't find many who aren't paranoid, although I like to think that I'm properly paranoid. One of those three is going to be the mole," Apex told him, going through the second cigarette quickly.

"We'll see… we'll see."

* * *

"Alright, we're coming up on the place," Kuji announced to everyone as they flew through the city. "The place is ah abandon wharf, schedule for demolition in five vils," he told them.

"How long is that?" Swindle asked.

"Universal language, Kuji, Not your own," Dedan demanded.

"Oh, sorry. Five weeks or 50 days," he translated.

"10 day stellar-cycles?" Swindle asked.

"If that's your version of a week, yes," Dedan answered.

"How long is a year?" he asked nervously.

"We have 63 weeks, so 630 days," Kuji answered that time, dishearting Swindle.

"Are you fragging kidding me? Cybertron had much shorter years than that!" Swindle bemoaned, cradling his head with his hands.

"Oh, did that fact never get in your head or were you too busy trying to make a profit?" Dedan questioned him.

"Ergggg… how long is solar cycle?" he asked.

"What's that?"

"A day."

"27 hours."

"Ugggggh," Swindle moaned, further being angry about his expectations being longer than he thought.

"Have you even been here before?" Kuji asked.

"Yeah, although I didn't care enough to learn the time here," Swindle told them.

"Well, now you know, moron," Dedan muttered, looking out the helicopter. "Alright, I see the wharf. Get ready to disembark." Swindle took his head out of his hands and poked his head out to look at the place. The only lights around the area was the one from the surrounding places, as no one bother to pay the electric bill for the place, and had there were several warehouses and shacks at the area with open spaces between the area. "Kuji, what do you got about this place?"

"Blokal Wharf. A local wharf that had been falling on hard times recently and decided to shut down for good when a scandal about them allowing people to use it to smuggle illegal goods around. The owner managed to worm his way out of punishment as well as many of the workers, although a couple were charged with smuggling. It was abandoned until we got reports about people from Novus being there, so Aeolus group went over to find it empty after splitting up and thoroughly searching the place for any members of Novus and headed back to the base where the bomb went off," he told them.

"Could Novus just do it while they were away from the ship?" Swindle asked.

"No, because the pilot, Tom, kept the plane in the air as the search took place. Someone from Aeolus's group had to get the bomb and bring it aboard without the others noticing," Kuji told him, "assuming Tom didn't just bring the bomb with him from our base and pinned it on the others."

"So, how are we going to find the answer to this?" Swindle asked. "Just look around and scrounge for any information?"

"Yes, although we're going to be a lot more through than Aeolus's group was. They were there for a cursory examination to see if Novus was around, not to find information about them," Dedan informed him.

"Alright," Swindle muttered.

"I'll be interrogating the people who live nearby and Kuji will look for any evidence for them in the area through traces that they left behind," Dedan told him. "Whichever one you want to help, you decide."

"Well, I'm a people person, so I guess I'll help you," Swindle immediately answered.

"Good. Now, before I forget," he fished for something in his jacket pocket before getting it out and handing it to him. It looked to be an injector of some sort. "Give me your hand."

"Uh, okay," he said, sticking his right hand out. Dedan roughly grabbed it and injected something in Swindle's palm, eliciting a yelp from Swindle, retracting his hand and rubbing the spot. "What the frag was that?"

"Look at it," Dedan told him and Swindle halted his rubbing to see two black circles, one in the other, and four lines from each direction converging in the center on his hand. "That's your way of identifying that you're a member of the military here. Everyone has one. There's also small computers in them that allows you to open doors at the base."

"Thanks for that," Swindle muttered. "Could've been less painful."

"Yeah, but hearing you in pain was good to hear," Dedan said with what looked like a smile, although it was hard to tell with those oversized teeth making him look like he was always scowling.

"Attention, we're landing in the area," the pilot told them and Swindle could see that they were very close to landing in a clearing at the wharf. The pilot descended carefully until the ship landed there and the three of them exited the ship. The pilot ascended back up and kept the ship floating in the air, putting it in waiting mode to save power.

"Well, me and Swindle are going to talk to the people nearby, Kuji. Did any research on them?" Dedan asked.

"Most of the people here are homeless, so I don't got much, but there are a few shopkeepers here that could give answers about what's going on here. As far as I know, they're not doing anything wrong, so you can't hold that over their heads. Also, I heard our favorite homeless person, Weird Kaith, is around the area too, if you're looking for entertainment," Kuji explained.

"Oh, really. Ha, Swindle, you're going to love that nut-job," Dedan told him. "I can mock him in his face constantly and he would not get it."

"I almost want to not investigate the place to see him, but I have a job to do," the helmeted detective agreed before he started walking off. "Have fun and keep the comms ready!" he told them as he entered a nearby warehouse.

"Well, shall we go see the possible witnesses," Swindle asked, looking around.

"Let's go. I bet they're hanging just outside the wharf."

* * *

Tom laid back in the corner sitting next to a table, sighing to himself as most of the group was talking to each other. He didn't felt like he belong, due to them being soldiers and drinking some green alcohol that the insectoids brew, said it was called Kleitsch or something like that. He couldn't remember. The brown-haired humanoid was careful, making sure he didn't spill any on his well-trimmed beard. As he drank it, a red insectoid took a seat next to him, making him a little weary. He wasn't specist, he just hated insects and seeing some his size and capable of speech was something he still hadn't got used to. "What do you want, Kolt?" he asked, putting it aside.

"Nothing much. Just wanted to talk," he said, his mandibles splitting apart in four different pieces when he spoke, freaking the human out. He really wished they would keep those helmets on like the Frigaris like Kuji and Egrir do. At least he didn't to look at their body, which was sure to be disgusting to look at as well.

"About what?" Tom asked, still drinking.

"As a relative outsider to our group, which of us do you think did it?" he asked, causing a weird look from the pilot.

"I don't know. I can barely remember everyone's name," he told him, finishing off the glass and getting a bottle to refill it.

"Right," the insectoid muttered, tapping his finger against the table anxiously. "Do you have another glass with you?"

"Huh, oh, hold on," he said, looking near him to see a clean glass in a cabinet nearby ad grabbed it. "Here you go," he said, sliding it across the table to him. Kolt grabbed it and the bottle and began pouring some of the Kleitsch into his own glass.

"I need to calm my nerves," he told him, filling it up to the top.

"I'm doing the same," Tom agreed, although he didn't mentioned that Kolt was just adding to his need to drink.

"Great, I'm not alone. Apex smokes his anxiety away. I drink my away. Glad to see other races get paranoid," he told him, taking a swig.

"Who do you suspect?" Tom asked before taking a sip.

"Hmm, well… Egrir isn't very trustworthy right now, although I don't know why. Just a feeling. Rife is… strange. Apex is newish and this all happened when he came, so that is suspicious," he told him, taking a drink between each person. "I reckon it be one of them. Aeolus is too loyal, Koda is too violent to pull this off, you're not one of us, and Daemon, while morally inadequate, got stabbed in the back by Novus and has been plotting revenge on them. Overall… yeah, I'm competent it's one of those three."

"Hmph, you keep good tabs on them," Tom said, taking a drink. Maybe if he drink enough, he vision would blur enough to make Kolt look human somehow. That will probably require getting blackout drunk, but he was _ugly_.

"It's a part of our biology. Can't help it," he muttered, taking another drink. "I wish I could."


	11. Knowing

"Weird Kaith!" Dedan shouted as they met the first pack of homeless and encountered the yellow frigaris hanging around a barrel on fire along with two black-skinned humanoid with orange-hair that looked alike, one asleep and one about to sleep. Kaith looked up to see him and Swindle walk up to him and opened up his segmented mouth in happiness, showing off a rotten mouth. He was wearing dirty, brown clothing all over him with rips at the bottom of his shirt and his knees along with a scarf that was frayed at the ends. The insect looked at them with excited green eyes that were very wide and very hazy, likely having something to do with the bottles of alcohol around the area.

"Heeeeey, Dedan," he gave a slur greeting, waving to them with a friendly smile. "Heeeey, robo-dude."

"Name's Swindle," he told him with a friendly smile.

"Swindle? What kind of… name is that?" he asked, scratching the bottom of his chin and looking up in thought. Swindle's hand twitch at annoyance in that.

"It's the name I was given." He really hoped that he wouldn't have to do this anymore.

"Okay… we don't get many of your kind over here. You're always off killing each other," he murmured as he looked back at Dedan, his stance unbalanced. "Hey, give me a high-five," he said, holding his hand in the air lethargically.

"Sure thing, shitface," he replied, raising his hand up and sending it to his hand quickly into his.

"Yeaaaaaah!" he yelled, raising his hand into the air in celebration, before drooping forward and almost falling to the ground, but corrected himself. "Woah. Need to calm down…."

"Is he always like this?" Swindle asked, weirded out by him.

"He's very sedated right now. Trust me, you should see him when he's streaking naked or when he's having sex in public," he replied, amused, while Swindle's optics brighten in fear at that.

"Hey, you," Kaith pointed a dirty finger at Swindle, who looked confused. Before he stuck his hand out for another high-five. "Come on, slap me some skin- er, metal," he ordered. Swindle glanced at him nervously doing so, slapping it into his hand.

"Yowch!" he yelped, jumping up and down in pain. "Metal hurts."

"Okay, seriously, he's an idiot and there's no useful information he could give us," Swindle complained to Dedan, glaring at the insane homeless man.

"Information? Am I getting paid?" he asked, getting all up in their faces, ignoring the pain.

"Calm down, weird fuck," Dedan ordered, getting slightly annoyed.

"You know the harbor, right?" Swindle asked.

"Of course. Place went kaput and then opened back up and shut down again," he told them.

"Really? How much do you know about the second opening?" Swindle asked.

"Some strange dudes entered. I thought they were your guys, but they stayed there instead of leaving. Don't know much else," he answered.

"Are you sure? You didn't enter it?" Dedan asked.

"One of our own snuck in while they were there. He never came out," Kaith told them with a shudder. "When one of ours snuck in when the previous owners were their, he had his legs broken, but he was allowed to leave. We have a feeling that we'll never see him again."

"Obviously, he saw something he shouldn't," Swindle muttered.

"His name is Terith. He's like me, except more photogenic," he told them.

"I find it hard to figure out which members of your specious is more attractive," Swindle told him.

"Hah! Ain't that the truth? Look, he should have a scar on his left shoulder that looked like a bullet hit it. Only one on hm. That should be enough to ID him if you find his body," he told them.

"Thanks for that," Swindle said with a smile. "Tell us, did you noticed anything unusual about them?"

"Nah. They all wore cheap clothes and I saw no familiar markings on them, although I'm not in the right mind most of the time, so I could've missed something," he answered with a chuckle. "They don't discriminate, though. I saw all the races working for them. Including some of yours, robo-dude."

"Must be neutrals."

"Anyway, that's about all I know. They had no patterns to their movements and shipments. All I can tell for certain is that they are mysterious and that they are assholes," he told them.

"Well, that was not bad," Dedan nodded, offering his hand. Kaith took it and shook it. "Hope you enjoy the funds," he said, which confused Swindle and looked around, not noticing any money being transfer.

"Thanks, man. Come by and I might have some fun times for you," he offered.

"Don't give me a reason to arrest you," Dedan told him, walking off, Swindle walking behind him.

"Money? I didn't see any money," he told him.

"That's cause I didn't give him any," he told him.

"Oh… he's got bad memory, doesn't he?"

"Short term and he has problems properly taking information in. Give him a day and the yesterday's memories will pop up again with some good, but not perfect, details," he told him.

"Huh. Weird. When someone autopsy his brain, they'll have a fun time," Swindle muttered.

"So, since Weird Kaith was pretty decent with information, let's go check on Kuji," Dedan ordered.

"Fine with me. I hope we don't have to talk with that weirdo again anytime soon," Swindle shuddered.

"Oh, trust me, we will. He has a habit of turning up where he shouldn't. I once found him in one of our interrogation rooms. He somehow managed to break in," Dedan told him.

"Really? Damn, how did a drunk like him managed to… get in?" Swindle stopped, thinking things through and Dedan stopped to glare at him as well. "Did he ever tell you how he got in?"

"No. He was lacking in information about that. Why? Do you think that's how those assholes in Novus managed to sneak in the facility?" Dedan asked.

"It's a possibility," he said, turning back to talk to Kaith. Dedan rolled his eyes and followed along as Swindle walked up to Kaith ad began talking to him. "Hey, Weird Kaith. We've got additional questions." The drunk was on the floor with his back turned, about to sleep, when Swindle interrupted him. He groaned in pain and turned to looked at him.

"What? I want to sleep…," he moaned.

"You broke into Dedan's facility and made it to the interrogation room. How did you did that?" Swindle asked.

"The sewers, of course. You have an access hatch in there that people can enter," he told him, closing his limbs on himself. "Now, let me sleep. I like it."

"Sure…," Swindle muttered, walking off back to the harbor with Dedan by his side.

"I'll have someone find the access hatch," Dedan told him, sounding a bit angered. "We'll find out if they used it."

"We both know they did. Now the question is, how did they find out about it?" Swindle asked him.

"Either exploratory units in the sewer or they got the building plans somehow. Either is bad news," Dedan muttered.

"Either they got people in the sewers or the architecture section. If they have the plans for your buildings, how many do they have?" Swindle asked.

"Dammit, I hate you for actually being decent. I was hoping to curse out your incompetence," Dedan growled.

"I haven't survived this long from being stupid."

* * *

"Ugh, this is unbelievable," Rife complained to Egrir at the back of the room away from everyone. Aeolus and Apex were both still in the bathroom together, the pilot and Kolt were drinking together, and Daemon and Koda was making the most minimal of small talk.

"It is quite unfortunate," Egrir agreed as he sat in his chair and watched Rife walking back-and-forth, her red hair moving smoothly. "You should probably calm down. Someone might be suspicious of it."

"Don't turn into one of those insects on me," she growled, looking towards the table with her teeth clenched where the insect was drinking with the humanoid. "Those weird looking bastards."

"You must not like how I look," Egrir chuckled.

"You keep your helmet on. I don't have to see your ugly face. Those damn insects, on the other hand…," she growled, turning to look at him.

"You realize these helmets are not a fashion statement. We need them to breathe," he told her.

"Don't care," she muttered, scratching her hair.

"You should care," he said, sounding hurt.

"Don't get soft on me," she scoffed, walking over and taking a seat in front of him. "I don't like it when you're soft."

"Forgive me for showing some cracks in my emotional armor," he muttered sarcastically.

"Oh, don't get smug with me," she threaten, glaring at him.

"What? Don't be like that," he muttered. "Once we get out of here, we can go to a bar and punch some assholes together.

"Now that- that! I can get behind," she chuckled, leaning back in her chair. "Or, we can just start a fight with one of the others."

"I think in our current situation, we just wait it out. Don't want anyone to get the wrong impression of us," he tried to tame her ire.

"Hmm maybe… or we can start a ruckus. I'm bored," she grinned, looking around.

"Oh…."

* * *

Kuji entered one of the warehouses, entering through the wide doors. The room had boxes all around the room with various labels on them, saying they were packed with a variety of foods. There were desks at the back of the room with inactivated computers. He walked on over to the computers and tried to activate them, only for them to not respond at all to him. Kuji bent down and searched under the desk for a power console to activate them. It didn't take long before he noticed a slight separation in the floor and opened it up, revealing the power console. He was momentarily proud before realized that everything was slashed up. He wasn't going to use this to activate the computers. He would have to send these back to the base to look through the computers.

After a quick glance around for anything else, Kuji exited the warehouse. Every building had been the same thing: miscellaneous objects with some tech nearby that won't work because all relevant parts dedicated to the power were slashed. If he wanted anything related to the memory of the devices, he will have to bring all of them backed to base or repair them here. Either way, it was annoying as all hell and he wanted to get some bullets sent Novus's way. "Assholes," he muttered.

"Kuji!" he heard Dedan's raspy tones yell at him and he turned to see Dedan and Swindle walking over to him.

"Hey, you guys. I hope you've had better luck than I have had. They made it impossible for me to access their electronics here. I'll either have to take them back to base or fix them here," he summarized what he found to them.

"Well, it's just a hunch, but we think that Novus has either exploratory units in the sewers or moles in the architecture section," Swindle told him.

"Oh, that's just… wonderful," Kuji muttered sarcastically. "Thanks for the good news."

"Yeah… we're going to need to send some troops down under the sewers and start sending investigators to architects and the like to see if they're on the up-and-up," Dedan told him.

"It would be the best course of action. It's going to take a while to fully investigate the sewers and the architects," the helmeted detective muttered.

"True. Is there any way to limit the search?"

"Well… I wonder if there's an entrance to the sewers at this harbor," he muttered, twisting around to look the place over. "When Aeolus's group came here, they could've used the sewers to retreat and hide out."

"If there is, they could be right under us," Swindle muttered, looking down.

"This place is large. If there is one around here, it could take a while," Dedan said, scratching his chin.

"Well, we could just ask the building planners for the maps and see if it does," Kuji suggested, crossing his arms confidently.

"If there's moles, they could just fake the plans to make it look like there none of the sewers run through here," Dedan rebuked.

"…Dammit," Kuji muttered.

"Look, the only way we'll know for sure is to search the area, so let's… get started," Swindle muttered, grasping his head. "Oh, where did this headache come from?"

"Oh, you're a robot. You shouldn't be able to get any," Dedan scoffed.

"You have no idea about Cybertronian biology, do you?" Swindle asked, glaring at him, before wincing in pain again. "Oh, this really hurts."

"Overenergized?" Kuji asked.

"Yeah… something like that," he asked as he looked around, confused. "Am I the only one seeing this?"

"Seeing what?" Dedan asked. Swindle ignored him and kept looking around the ground. He suddenly started walking away unsteadily from the two to a random warehouse, ignoring the odd looks the other two were giving each other.

"Was hiring him the right thing to do?" Kuji asked, weirded out.

"Let's find out," he muttered, walking behind Swindle. Kuji swung his hands out in disbelief before following along, quietly murmuring to himself. Swindle approached the warehouse door and entered the area, the two following along. He stumbled around, looking around in confusion before walking to the wall and feeling it over with his hands. The two followers looked at each other in disbelief at how he was acting. This guy was insane.

*Click*

The three of them heard a noise and a rectangular piece of the floor opened upward, surprising them. The three of them walked over to it and looked to see a staircase leading down to a door. "Well I'll be damned," Dedan muttered. "Kuji, call for backup. We're going to explore the sewers."

"Understood," Kuji muttered in disbelief as he separated from them.

"How did you find that?" Dedan asked, looking over to Swindle.

"I… I don't know," he answered.

"You don't know? What the fuck does that mean?" he asked.

"I just… felt something. Saw some lights. I moved here and I felt like I had to search the wall," Swindle explained to him.

"Huh. There's something seriously wrong with you, but at least you're useful," Dedan grumbled. "Good work."

"Yeah…."

* * *

Daemon relaxed in his bed, trying to keep to himself, but Koda was making it difficult for him. "I mean, why would someone work for them?" she asked, scratching her purple hair.

"I don't know," he answered blandly.

"Do you know who it is?"

"I don't know."

"Could it be Aeolus?"

"I don't know."

"Why do you work with us?"

"Hmm, now that's something I do know. I'm just don't want to tell you," he said, looking over into her bright blue eyes.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because I don't like explaining my past to everyone. You can get more information from literally anyone else," he told him.

"But, that's not the way this works," she said.

"I'm convicted of raping someone. Why do you want to know more about me?" he asked, looking over to her. "I'm generalize recognize as a horrible being."

"I don't know," she shrugged her shoulders. "You interest me and we got to work together."

"Aren't you afraid of me?" he asked, glaring at her.

"Not really? Interested, but not afraid," she said, scratching the side of her shoulders.

"You're an idiot," he muttered, looking back up at the ceiling.

"Well, sorry for not living up to expectations," she sarcastically replied. Daemon gave a single grunt of annoyance and preceded to ignoreher. "You know, I like the way you phrased it. You said you are a convicted rapist. You didn't call yourself a rapist. You just said you were convicted of rape. Does that mean you think you're innocent?" she asked, leaning in with interest. He turned to glare at her, not letting any emotion show on his face.

"I'll let you find out yourself. There's nothing you can prove or disprove now," he said, looking back up at the ceiling.

"Suit yourself… although, just to let you know, I don't think you're the mole like some people think you are."

"They think I'm the mole?" he asked, looking back at her.

"I can see a couple of looks our way. I wouldn't be surprised if they think so," she told him.

"Yes, me… or they think it's you," he muttered, turning away.

"Do you think it's me?" she asked. Daemon stayed quiet before he answered.

"Nah. You're taking too much interest with me. Someone who is a mole wouldn't take interest with me," he muttered.

"Well, that's good to know. At least we can trust each other," she smiled.

"I trust you to not be the mole. That's it. We're not friends or anything," he muttered.

"So you say. I'm sure that'll change."

"If you think so."


	12. Hyper-Explosives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit. I actually updated all my stories in one month. That's an odd feeling.

"We're getting some boots on the ground in fifteen minutes," Kuji told Dedan and Swindle as he came back in. "Until they get here, should we explore the first area and establish a foothold down there?"

"Probably a good idea. Best to do a little bit of scouting to make sure out first steps down there are safe and not going to end in an impossible to pass chokepoint that we would have to flank," Dedan agreed to the situation, pulling out a laser pistol, as Kuji took a ballistic one out as well, while Swindle just looked around, unable to use something.

"Uh, guys, I don't have a gun," Swindle told them.

"The reinforcement will bring assault weapons with them. Until then, stay here and we'll take a look downstairs. If we say it's clear, come on down," Dedan told him and went down the steps with Kuji right behind him, leaving Swindle to huff and take a seat on a crate follow by leaning back against the wall, hoping to take a brief nap. The two descended down the metal steps to the corner of a small room which had a metal shelf next to them and a desk with a computer at the other end with a door in the center of the wall opposite of the stairs and a generator next to it that was powering the well-lit lights in the room.

"Looks like that generator gives power to the warehouse," Kuji said as he stepped forward to examine. It was a large one embedded into the wall with various buttons grouped together and a screen to input commands in.

"You think the other warehouses have these generators?" Dedan asked as he walked over to the desk and checked it.

"I'm unsure. They might. They might not. Unable to know for sure until we get the plans or search the other warehouses or ask Swindle to search around when he has another spastic attack," he answered Dedan question, taking a jab at Swindle at the end there.

"Might be a good idea," Dedan chuckled.

"I heard that!" Swindle yelled from above.

"Wow, those are some good ears," Kuji muttered.

"No kidding," Dedan agreed as he opened the desk cabinet. "Hey, they didn't slash this computer's down here."

"Really?" Kuji yelled as he quickly sprinted on over and pushed him aside to look at it, causing Dedan to glare at him in an annoyed matter.

"Learn to ask me to get out of the way or I'll hand your ass to you," Dedan growled at him.

"Don't care. Just glad to find some working technology here," he said as he turned the computer on and began sifting through it. The computer was a primitive one, using a damn physical keyboard and mouse, something that's been outmodel for quite a while now.

"How the hell does something this dated stick around?" Dedan asked behind him, looking at it.

"My guess is because it's so dated, it won't be seen on out network. Pretty smart," Kuji said as he clicked around. "Alright, I found something that might be of use to us. It's a map of the sewers," he said, showing it off.

"Huh, so that means they're traveling through the sewers… what are these dots?" he asked, pointing out white dots shown inside the map.

"I don't know. Might be places to find these computers or groups of terrorist cells," Kuji told him as he downloaded the map and proceeded to check the rest of the computer for information.

"We'll have to send squads of soldiers to each of those areas to take control of those spots, with this harbor as a temporary bases," Dedan said.

"You really want to use this place a temporary base?" Kuji asked, turning to him.

"I see no reason not to. Since this place is set up for foreclosure, we can take control of this place and make use of it. We'll just send a takeover notice to the city's administrators. We'll give it back when we're done with it," he explained to him.

"Okay, if you say so, but we'll have to ship up the defenses here and send some troops to maintain it," Kuji told him.

"Don't worry, we got the manpower to spare, as long as we don't have any more traitors in our midst," he answered.

"If you said so," he muttered as he turned back to the computer and clicked on a couple of things. "Hey, found something," he said as he clicked on it.

"What would that be?" Dedan asked.

"A message exchange between this computer and another, talking about… the bombing," he muttered.

"Is it, now," Dedan said, looking over him to look at what he found. "And what is it about?"

"Schematics of the bomb. Specific dimensions and where they get it from," Kuji told him.

"Any information about how they got it on board?"

"None that I can see," he muttered as he examined it closely. "It's a small one made from a hyper-explosive."

"Hyper-explosive? Now where in the hell did they get that?" Dedan asked, confused. "Those should only be at military research facilities."

"It doesn't say. They could've gotten it illegally, although I have no idea how. We'll have to find a trail to lead us to where they get that," he told him.

"Erg, we already have so much to do and now we have to track where they got this hyper-explosive from. Just perfect," Dedan muttered.

"Relax, that'll be easier. Hyper-explosives are so unique that there shouldn't be many places they get it from and I can figure it out from there," Kuji assured him as he looked around for anything else.

"I don't know, but if you can, figure it out. We need to know if they have any more of this hyper-explosives ready to go," he said, worried.

"Hey, I can handle it, don't worry," he said as he finished with the computer and got up. "I didn't find anything else on it, so I'm done with that. According to the map, there's a small room before reaching the sewage tunnels. Want to check it out?" he asked Dedan.

"Might as well. Guns up," he told him as he aimed his gun at the door with Kuji doing the same. They approached the door and took cover next to each wall next to the door. Dedan pressed the button, causing the door to slide open and both of them aimed their guns inside an empty room where a few bunk beds were set up with footlockers set up at the ends of them and weapons lockers at the end. There was a simple table in the middle and a door leading to the sewer tunnels ahead of them. "Huh, no assholes here, but this was where some of them slept," Dedan said as he holster his weapon and looked around, with Kuji doing the same.

"The sewers are a good place to hide. Not many people get down here and it's easy to avoid the workers if you know their patrol patterns," Kuji told him as he opened a footlocker and looked inside. "Nothing."

"Same," Dedan agreed as he opened a weapons locker and shut it. "Must've left not long before Aeolus's squad got here."

"A good assumption," Kuji agreed as e shut the footlocker and the two regroup in the center. "So, we can basically confirm that Novus was here and were here for the long haul of they had these bunk beds here."

"Yes, but that really doesn't help us. We guessed that they were already hear and we know they were here for a while. The only important thing was that super-explosive info we found. I sincerely hope you don't fuck that up and figure out how they got that," Dedan told him.

"Relax, I'm good at this sort of thing. I'm a detective, remember?" he asked him.

"I know, but I learn that smart people have a tendency to get arrogant and screw it up for everyone," Dedan told him, leaning down in front of his helmet. "If I see you get a little too arrogant for my liking, I'll make sure it gets popped a few times."

"Right… understood," Kuji said nervously, a sight hitch in his voice. "I assure you that I'll find out how these terrorists got those hyper-explosives."

"Good…," Dedan hissed as he pulled back. "Let's head back up. I'm sure reinforcement is about to be here."

* * *

Swindle felt hazy as he leaned against the wall. He didn't know why he felt so tired, considering it's only been a few hours since he recharged. More than likely, it was probably the shock of it all and the fact that he didn't really recharged much at all. The whole thing was tiring for him and he needed a brief nap to recharge his sensors. Before long, he felt his optics start to shutter and turn off, leaving him in the dark.

* * *

"Hey, pay attention," a voice commanded and Swindle came out of a trance and looked to his right to see a mech who was about a head taller with a very smooth, streamline look to him, very different from his stocky, broad self. His color-scheme was red covering most of his body with purple and blue lines running across his body and limbs. He was scowling at him at the moment and Swindle knew he deserved it.

"Sorry, my creator," he muttered.

"Don't remind me," he told him, looking him over. "Alright, we can't fix that face of yours, so I guess this is the best you're going to be." He sighed and stood next to Swindle in front of the mirror. Even though they were creator and creation, they didn't look very much alike, the only thing that Swindle actually took from him was his wide blue optics, but even that was gone and replaced with a luminous purple and his face which one might be able to make a case was partially based on his was heavily scarred. It began with one going down the top-right corner of his head on down to above the right optic and it started spiraling out, one going straight down his optic on down to his cheek, one going down to past his mouth, one going under his left opric and one going to the his forehead before going up to the top of his head. One would be highly justified in saying that they shared no CNA at all. "Hmph, guess this is as best you're going to be from now on."

"Couldn't we just get a surgeon to fix it? I heard there's one by the name of Knock Out who specializes in it," Swindle asked him.

"That leaves a trail and people will want to know and people who are too curious will eventually find out what the meeting was about. Once that's done, they'll asked, 'why wasn't he arrested and sent to jail.' So, no, you're not getting surgery. We can't risk you getting arrested and ruining my reputation," he told him as he head for the door and opened it. "Come on, we have a gala to attend."

"Won't people wonder why my head is all messed up?" Swindle asked him as he exited the door and his creator closed it behind him.

"You're lucky. We had a minor explosion in the requisition office where you work and no one was around. A news report about you being caught in the explosion and bravely surviving it made it to the news on the front page. They won't be asking too many questions unless a surgeon gets a close up look at you face and wonder why none of it looks like it came from an explosion," he told him as the two exited the room and headed for the elevator.

"Erg," Swindle growled.

"Would you quit acting so petulant? Instead of a criminal, you're going down as a brave survivor of a freak accident. You have to wear those scars as a badge of honor in public," he told him.

"Yeah, sure, if people don't just run away, scared that the scarred mech was coming for them," he angrily told him as he pushed the button to take the elevator down.

"I'm not saying it's perfect, but you have to work with it. I still expect you to be my successor when all is said and done," he told him as the elevator opened and they entered it. He pressed a button to head to the bottom floor and the elevator closed, taking them down.

"You still want me to be the one to head up your senatorial spot?" Swindle asked, shocked.

"You don't see any other creations around, do you?" he asked him.

"No, I don't see any others," he agreed, nodding.

"It might be a bit difficult. The other senators know about your crimes, as well as Zeta Prime and a few key personnel, so don't expect their support without a lot of smooth-talking and deals, but the public don't know about it yet, and you are a survivor of a terrible explosion. You got that going for you and you need to utilize that when I retire and leave my position open," he told him.

"…Alright," Swindle muttered. "So, what's this gala about?"

"It's a fundraiser for workers who are injured on the job. Fitting, considering what recently happened to you," he told him with a little smirk.

"That doesn't sound like a very high-class event," Swindle muttered.

"That's because it isn't, but it's a good way to get to know the people are supporting us and drum up support for you. I'm not going to retire for a while, but it's about time to set up a fixture within the populace mind with your name. We already got a foothold with the 'explosion,' so we're going to strike while the iron's hot and have you deliver a speech about your experience," he told him.

"What?!" Swindle asked, turning to him.

"Yes, that's correct," he told him as he brought out a datapad and handed it to him. "The details of your survival in the news and your medical chart from the hospital."

"You just want me to make a improve speech while we on out way there?" he asked him.

"If there's anything I know for certain, you're at your most genuine when you don't have much time to prepare. Speaking is your thing Swindle. Do it," he told him as the elevator doot opened to the lobby where a couple of lavishly decorated people were waiting to get in and a receptionist nearby. The two got out of the elevator and the couple entered and the elevator closed as they clicked a button and the two made their way out.

"This is insane," Swindle muttered as they walked out to the limo and his creator opened it and let themselves inside, the two sitting across from each other, and started driving to the gala.

"Swindle, trust me, you can do it, now be quiet and start crafting your speech for them," he told him. Swindle glared at him and started reading the documents related to his 'accident.' The newspaper article was an overly-saccharine story about him being caught in the explosion and using his strong will to stay alive throughout the whole process. The medical process of his surgery was graphically detailed, explaining how so many shrapnel got in Swindle's head and they had to basically cut his entire face open to get inside and remove all the pieces out one by one in a six hour procedure. Despite the fact that it was all fake and not real at all, he couldn't help but feel disturbed by what he read. He would have to do a really good job selling it to the people attending the gala.

"Hey," he heard his creator speak and he turned up to him.

"Yeah?" Swindle asked.

"Wake up."

* * *

"Woah!" Swindle jumped as he woke up to see Dedan shaking him ruthlessly.

"Finally," Dedan growled, releasing his grip on him. "Come on, we found new relevant information and I can hear helicopters outside with reinforcement.

"Oh, uh… sorry," Swindle said, rubbing the back of his neck before standing up.

"Why were you so hard to wake up?" he asked, crossing his arm.

"Just remembering things," he told him as the two headed outside.

"Humph, I didn't think robots could dream," he told him.

"We do. Just not often," he told him.

"I hate my dreams. Always end up being nightmares," Dedan told him. "I always take medication to make sure I don't have any."

"You never have good dreams?" Swindle asked.

"No, I don't. They're always piss-poor, now quit asking more questions and concentrate on what's going on right now," Dedan told him. "The past of long ago can't affect you now."

"Yeah… I hope."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I noticed I haven't explained what Swindle's scars looked like, so I took care of that. Yay.


	13. Afraid This Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update bitches!

The trio looked up at the sky as two black airships and a helicopter came down. The helicopter was a small one, looking like it could only fit the pilots and a couple of passengers. The airships were well sized and could carry about eight in each one with the pilots. The three vehicles descended down on to the one clearing large enough for them, the helicopter being the closest to them. Swindle could fell the wind generated by the helicopter very well and he could see Dedan's jacket billowing from it as well. The wind deaden when the helicopter landed on the floor and the door opened up to let two individual out of it. The first being one who looked like Kuji being completely covered in the combat armor, although a bit shorter and thinner with a symbol of a knife on their right breast that matched the one hanging off their waist that was sheathed, but looked very long. The other person was another bipedal lizard with a light-blue skin and pink eyes. Both of them wore the black combat armor, with the lizard keeping his head exposed, and both of them had ballistic rifles in the hands, the former having it slinged on their back while the latter let it rest on his shoulders. As they were walking towards them, the airships opened up and let the soldiers out, letting them wait at .

"Oh, shit…," Swindle heard Kuji muttered from right behind him as the two stopped in front of them.

"Hey, Dedan," the lizard said curtly before giving a wry grin, "and hello, Kuji. How you've been?"

"Why are you here?" Kuji questioned him, annoyed.

"Got orders, of course. What else?" he replied as he looked at the one unknown. "And who the hell is this?"

"This is Swindle," Dedan immediately said. "He's a criminal trying to repay his debt to society."

"So you're the new punching bag," the other person said, speaking in a heavily modulated female voice.

"Yeah, although I'm finding him pretty useful," he told them, which earned a sour look from Swindle.

"So ex-con, what were you busted for?" she asked him.

"I hid weapons on one of your moons and some assholes jacked it," Swindle told them.

"Weapons. Hey, didn't Novus get a sudden increase in armaments?" the lizard asked them, his face serious.

"Yes. This moron is the reason why their gear has gotten better," Dedan confirmed, crossing his arms and glaring at Swindle with one of his eyes before speaking again. "However, as he said, they stole it from him."

"Still store it in one of our moons, which I'm sure qualifies as smuggling," the woman said.

"Of course, but not enough to convict me on arms dealing," Swindle pointed out.

"Hmph, right, anyway, what do you want us to do?" she asked Dedan.

"Uh, what's your name?" Swindle asked them.

"Oh, we didn't say our names, didn't we?" the lizard muttered, tapping his chins, before he spoke up. "I'm Terix and this is Cairn. We're located at the other base, over to the north while you guys are down south."

"Right, now that we're done with pleasantries, let's get down to business," Dedan told them. "As you must've heard, our base got bombed to hell and we're dealing with a mole. We know that this harbor is where the bomb came from and we've found evidence of some of Novus being here and running away through the sewers. We have eight of our soldier quarantine back at base as we're trying to figure out which one of them is the mole."

"Hmm, interesting," Cairn muttered. "You're hoping this place will have information?"

"We've found the hard drives and power console, but they're broken. Going to have to take it back to base," Kuji told them.

"Really, now? Do you need help with that?" Terix asked in a flirting matter.

"No… now shut the hell up," he told him angrily before speaking again calmly. "Shouldn't take me more than three hours to fix one."

"While you're doing that, I'll see if I can whip our soldiers into a hunting frenzy and comb the sewers for the missing enemies," Cairn said confidently.

"Wouldn't expect any less," Dedan nodded.

"Let me guess, with Kuji fixing the computers, you want me to look around the area for any more clues," Terix said.

"Exactly. You're the best detective I know," Dedan nodded.

"I would argue against that," Kuji said, jealous. "They sent me to investigate the bombing, not you."

"Yep, and it was only a matter of time before they send me along to make up for your shortcomings," he mocked, having a sadistic grin.

"It's been less than a day, you jack-off," he angrily replied, clenching his fist.

"I know. Speaks loudly about your incompetence, even though we're at separate bases" he chuckled.

"Urg…."

"Uh, what am I here to do?" Swindle interrupted, wanting to hurry it up.

"Don't know. Got anything that can help?" Dedan asked.

"Well, I know weapons really well. Guns, explosives, the works," he replied.

"Hmm… how well do you know explosives?" Dedan questioned him.

"Very well. Why are you asking about that in particular?" he wondered, intrigued.

"Use your head!" he yelled, making Swindle flinched. "The bomb at the airfield. We've figure out that it was a hyper-explosive."

"Hyper-explosive? Damn, that's some powerful stuff," Swindle remarked. "Must've been a small amount that caused the damage to the airfield."

"Exactly. Kuji, transfer your data over to him," he ordered.

"Right," Kuji nodded, pressing a couple of buttons on his armor. "Alright, do you know how to sync up to me, Swindle?"

"Uh, how do I do that?" Swindle asked, unsure.

"Alright, since you're a robotic organism, you don't have to wear the armor, so just press your finger on the center of your tattoo," he said. Swindle was confused on how this will work before he did so. Almost immediately, his HUD lit up with things to do with the tattoo, which surprised him.

"Damn… this is cool," Swindle complimented.

"Yeah, whatever, just look for the sync option and activate it," he told him. Swindle nodded and found it at the bottom-right corner of it and activate it.

"Got it."

"Right. I'm synced up and sending the files I found to you," he told him and Swindle noticed several things in his inbox. "Also, I went ahead and figured out nearby experimental weapons facility for you to go check out and see if they lost their samples. There's one in the city you can check out in walking distance and one on the outskirts."

"Really now?" Dedan questioned, surprised.

"Yeah. Swindle can lead you there with the map I gave him and you can talk about what the city's is like while you're at it. Always a good thing to get to learn about the city," he recommended to him.

"Right, Swindle, you've got everything?" Dedan questioned.

"Yeah," he answered immediately.

"Great. Cairn, Terix, follow me to the secret entrance to the sewer tunnels. Give you a good idea of what it looks like so you can enter the sewer tunnels and give you an idea of what to look for more secret entrances," he told them, heading to the entrance.

"Understood," Cairn said curtly, following along.

"See you later, Kuji," Terix said before walking off. Kuji clenched his fists slightly before releasing.

"Why can't I stay away from you," he bemoaned.

"Got problems with him?" Swindle asked.

"Yeah, several," Kuji nodded.

"Rivals?"

"My ex," he answered.

"Oh." Swindle realized, rubbing the back of his head. "Eh, never had that problem. Had flings, but they were mostly for deals. What happened to you two?"

"He's a whore," Kuji answered bluntly. "The bastard cheated on me with at least _seven_ different people and probably some more as well."

"Wow… how long did it take for you to realize he was cheating on you?" Swindle asked, intrigued. "Cheating with seven different people is hard to accomplish unnoticed."

"He used those detective skills of his to make sure I had no idea. Seriously, I didn't have a clue for several months until he got bored and deliberately left crumbs for me to follow, that dick!" he growled. "He treated our relationship like a game of cat and mouse and didn't take it remotely seriously, even though he acted the part."

"Wow… what a giant dick," Swindle had to admit, startled, before realizing something. "Uh, you're different species, aren't you?" Swindle questioned him, looking behind him. "I don't see a tail."

"Oh, yeah, we are, but Pz-zazz is very liberal. There's a bunch of interspecies romance here. Not the only thing either. We may be a bit tight on smugglers, but things we sell are very diverse. Aside from the obvious, you know, like tanks and explosives, guns are pretty easy to buy and drugs are mostly legal. We got a few that are illegal, like krokodil and tentrape, but that's mostly because those are dangerous as all hell. Unfortunately, people are desperate and some drugs are expensive, so they'll go for the cheaper shit, even if it kills them," he explained to Swindle.

"Hmph, so it's a very free market," Swindle smiled, thinking of what he could do. "I can make some serious money from that."

"If you insist," Kuji shrugged. "Just remember, since you're working for us, your job is to keep the peace."

"I'll remember," Swindle nodded as Dedan came back out from the warehouse.

"Right, hey! Soldiers!" he yelled and the soldiers immediately came over to him, waiting for orders. "Right, three things. Half of you, go with Cairn and explore the tunnels carefully. Other half, load up the computers for Kuji to take back to base and maintain the area with Terix after you're done with that. Now move, you bastards!" the soldiers followed his orders, moving out quickly to help the search with Cairn or help Terix out.

"Right, best you two head on out to the weapons facility," Kuji told them, crossing his arm. "The weapons facility might close very soon."

"Excellent point. Swindle, got the map open?" Dedan questioned him.

"Yeah. Should be eight block away from here," Swindle told him, looking at the map on his HUD.

"Great, Kuji, I trust you and Terix can find something," Dedan told him.

"We will. They won't get away," Kuji promised. "Have fun at the weapon's facility."

"Right, let's head out."

* * *

Unicron was unsure of how to handle the situation. Yes, his sole goal is to keep Swindle alive is extremely simple, but considering he's being thrown against an army, it's bound to make things more difficult. Not to mention all the other creatures around who might want to kill his host. He normally wouldn't have to worry about them, but losing your massive size and most of your powers missing means you have to put things into perspective and realize _he is vulnerable_. This was something that he honestly struggled to come to terms with. Primus? He could handle Primus being capable of harming him. He was his brother, it would be like himself beating him. Primes? A small chance that shouldn't have happened, but it did anyway. Any other being? _No_. That was impossible.

And yet, here he was in this situation. Trapped in the shell of a vulnerable being that he would crush on any other day. It was an insidious, ironic insult to him. So, he had to make sure his symbiotic relationship with the creature. He boosted his ability to hear and if he sensed things, he would make sure Swindle would find it. Thankfully, the creature was capable in combat, which comforted Unicron. Although he has no doubts about actually succeeding in completely taking over this being as his host, it was good that he can fight.

Speaking of the creature, he actually paid enough attention to learn its name: Swindle. _How appropriate_. Unicron didn't exactly like to pay attention to insignificant scum, but he had to make an exception just this once. He wasn't going to care about anyone else barring threat values. Examining his thoughts and his feelings, he was troubled, although what exactly, he wasn't sure of. Probably something to do with his dream that he watched. A weird one, that was, but something that could help him figure this being out was always a positive. That said, the individual was going to be a bit difficult to parse out. Between his greed and his damaged past, it might be a bit difficult to make him behave. _Might_.

That being said, he felt something off. Not about Swindle, although even then, there was something odd about him. No, the thing that confused him was the _planet_ _itself_. He had no idea why, but there was a strange energy with the planet. Not a god hiding at the core of it. That felt different and Primus composed Cybertron, not this planet. No, this was a extremely different feeling. Something about the energy of it struck as odd, out of this universal. Something that welcomed his arrival.

That genuinely worried him.


End file.
